1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
25 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
26 * Changes in Emacs 24.4
29 ** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
32 ** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
33 This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
34 simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
36 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
38 ** New commands `toggle-frame-maximized' and `cycle-frame-maximized',
39 bound to <f11> and S-<f11>, respectively.
42 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
46 *** New macro cl-tagbody.
49 *** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
53 *** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
54 uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
55 Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
56 December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
57 consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
59 *** The new variable `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure the
60 date when Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
61 Nil, the default value, means to always use the Gregorian calendar.
62 The value (YEAR MONTH DAY) means to start using the Gregorian calendar
67 *** New option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
68 If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally paste large
69 amounts of data into the ERC input.
71 ** Icomplete is a bit more like IDO.
72 *** key bindings to navigate through and select the completions.
73 *** The icomplete-separator is customizable, and its default has changed.
74 *** Removed icomplete-show-key-bindings.
76 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.4.
77 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
80 ** The unrmail command converts from BABYL to mboxrd rather than mboxo.
81 Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
84 ** Similarly, customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects
85 of how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
88 ** New function `ses-rename-cell' to give SES cells arbitrary names.
90 ** trace-function was largely rewritten.
92 - no prompting for the destination buffer, unless a prefix-arg was used.
93 - additionally to prompting for a destination buffer, when a prefix-arg is
94 used, the user can enter a "context", i.e. Lisp expression whose value at the
95 time the function is entered/exited will be printed along with the function
96 name and arguments. Useful to trace the value of (current-buffer) or
97 (point) when the function is invoked.
99 ** New command `delete-duplicate-lines' has two types of operation:
100 when its arg ADJACENT is non-nil (when called interactively with C-u C-u)
101 it works like the utility `uniq'. Otherwise by default it deletes
102 duplicate lines everywhere in the region without regard to adjacency.
106 *** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
107 devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-sdk-dir'
108 must be set to the Android SDK installation directory.
112 *** The commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
113 are obsolete. Customize the `woman-* faces instead.
115 ** Obsolete packages:
117 *** longlines.el is obsolete; use visual-line-mode instead.
119 *** terminal.el is obsolete; use term.el instead.
122 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
123 ** New nadvice.el package offering lighter-weight advice facilities.
125 - add-function/remove-function which can be used to add/remove code on any
126 function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
127 - advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named function,
128 much like `defadvice' does.
130 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
132 ** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in symbol-function.
133 `symbol-function' never signals `void-function' any more.
134 `fboundp' returns non-nil if the symbol was `fset' to nil.
136 ** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
137 special-forms any more.
139 ** `dolist' in lexical-binding mode does not bind VAR in RESULT any more.
140 VAR was bound to nil which was not tremendously useful and just lead to
141 spurious warnings about an unused var.
143 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.4
145 ** Support for filesystem notifications.
146 Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
147 creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
148 'inotify' API on GNU/Linux systems. On MS-Windows systems, this is
149 supported for Windows XP and newer versions.
153 *** The `face-spec-set' is now analogous to `setq' for face specs.
154 Its third arg now accepts values specifying exactly which face spec to
155 set (defface, custom, or user spec), and it directly sets the relevant
156 property using the supplied face spec.
158 *** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
159 rather than inheriting from it (as do face specs set via Customize).
161 ** time-to-seconds is not obsolete any more.
162 ** New function special-form-p.
163 ** Docstrings can be made dynamic by adding a `dynamic-docstring-function'
164 text-property on the first char.
166 ** The `defalias-fset-function' property lets you catch calls to defalias
167 and redirect them to your own function instead of `fset'.
169 * Changes in Emacs 24.4 on non-free operating systems
172 ** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
173 The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
174 directory where Emacs was running.
177 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
180 ** The default toolkit has been changed to Gtk+ version 3.
181 If you don't pass --with-x-toolkit to configure or if you pass
182 --with-x-toolkit=gtk or --with-x-toolkit=yes, configure will try to build
183 with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
184 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
185 --with-x-toolkit=gtk2 or --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 to configure.
188 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
189 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
192 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
193 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
196 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
197 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
198 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
199 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
203 ** The configure option '--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
204 renamed to '--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
205 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
206 check that this option enables.
209 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
210 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
213 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
214 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
218 ** The configure options `--program-prefix', `--program-suffix', and
219 `--program-transform-name' apply to more than just the installed
220 binaries. Now they also affect the man pages, icons, and the
221 etc/emacs.desktop file; but not the info pages, since this would break
222 links between the various manuals.
225 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
228 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
229 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
233 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
234 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
235 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
238 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
241 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
242 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
243 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
246 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
249 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
252 ** Most y-or-n prompts now allow you to scroll the selected window.
253 Typing C-v or M-v at a y-or-n prompt scrolls forward or backward
254 respectively, without exiting from the prompt.
258 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
259 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
260 that does not have its own specialized help text.
262 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to invoke
263 `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
268 *** `C-h f' (describe-function) can now perform autoloading.
269 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
270 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
271 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
272 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
275 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
276 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
277 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
279 ** Minibuffer changes
281 *** In minibuffer filename prompts, `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' now move to the
282 next and previous path separator, respectively.
284 *** minibuffer-electric-default-mode can rewrite (default ...) to [...].
285 Just set minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default to t before enabling the mode.
288 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
289 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
290 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
291 automatically at startup, or when customizing an imagemagick- option.
293 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
294 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
295 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
297 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
298 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
299 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
302 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
303 :background image spec property.
305 ** Server and client changes
307 *** emacsclient now obeys string values for `initial-buffer-choice',
308 if it is told to open a new frame without specifying any file to visit
309 or expression to evaluate.
311 *** New option `server-auth-key' specifies a shared server key.
314 ** In the Package Menu, newly-available packages are listed as "new",
315 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
318 ** `C-x C-q' is now bound to the new minor mode `read-only-mode'.
319 This minor mode replaces `toggle-read-only', which is now obsolete.
322 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
323 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
324 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
325 that support backtraces.
328 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
329 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about the bzr revision used.
332 ** New variable `create-lockfiles' specifies usage of lockfiles.
333 It defaults to t. Changing it to nil inhibits the creation of lock
334 files (use this with caution).
337 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
338 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
341 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
342 local variables on remote hosts.
345 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
346 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
348 ** Internationalization changes
350 *** New language environment: Persian.
352 *** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
354 ** Nextstep (GNUstep / Mac OS X) port changes
356 *** Fullscreen and frame parameter fullscreen is supported.
358 *** A file dialog is used for open/save operations initiated from the
362 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
364 ** Navigation command changes
366 *** New binding `M-g c' for `goto-char'.
368 *** New binding `M-g TAB' for `move-to-column'.
370 *** `M-g TAB' (`move-to-column') prompts for a column number if called
371 interactively with no prefix arg. Previously, it moved to column 1.
373 ** Search and Replace changes
375 *** Non-regexp Isearch now performs "lax" space matching.
376 Each sequence of spaces in the supplied search string may match any
377 sequence of one or more whitespace characters, as specified by the
378 variable `search-whitespace-regexp'. (This variable is also used by a
379 similar existing feature for regexp Isearch).
381 *** New Isearch command `M-s SPC' toggles lax space matching.
382 This applies to both ordinary and regexp Isearch.
384 *** New option `replace-lax-whitespace'.
385 If non-nil, `query-replace' uses flexible whitespace matching too.
388 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
389 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
390 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
393 ** `C-x 8 RET' is now bound to `insert-char', which is now a command.
394 `ucs-insert' is now an obsolete alias for `insert-char'.
397 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
398 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
402 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether
403 M-x delete-trailing-whitespace should delete trailing lines at the end
404 of the buffer. It defaults to t.
408 *** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
410 *** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
411 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
412 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
415 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
418 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
419 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
422 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
423 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
424 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
427 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
431 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
432 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
433 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
435 *** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
436 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
439 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
441 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
442 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
447 *** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
448 See the variable `calendar-month-header'.
451 *** New LaTeX calendar style, produced by `cal-tex-cursor-week2-summary'.
454 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
455 Customize `cal-html-holidays' to change this.
460 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
461 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
462 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
465 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
466 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
467 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
468 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
470 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is mainly just a bunch of aliases that
471 provide the old non-prefixed names. Some exceptions are listed below.
474 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
475 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
476 In particular, in cl-flet function definitions are lexically scoped,
477 whereas in flet the scoping is dynamic.
480 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
481 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
482 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
483 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
486 *** `cl-letf' is not exactly like `letf'.
487 The only difference is in details that relate to some deprecated usage
488 of `symbol-function' in place forms.
491 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
492 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
493 rather than making them unbound.
496 *** The following methods of extending `setf' are obsolete
497 (use features from gv.el instead):
498 `define-modify-macro' (use `gv-letplace')
499 `defsetf' (use `gv-define-simple-setter' or `gv-define-setter')
500 `define-setf-expander' (use `gv-define-setter' or `gv-define-expander')
501 `get-setf-method' no longer exists (see "Incompatible Lisp Changes")
504 ** New compilation option `compilation-always-kill'.
508 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
510 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
511 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
515 ** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory.
516 Desktop files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
521 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
524 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
527 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
528 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
531 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
532 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
535 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
538 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
539 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
543 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
546 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
551 *** Changes are now highlighted using the same color scheme as in
552 modern VCSes. Deletions are displayed in red (new faces
553 `diff-refine-removed' and `smerge-refined-removed', and new definition
554 of `diff-removed'), insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added'
555 and `smerge-refined-added', and new definition of `diff-added').
558 *** The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use the
559 face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added' to highlight
560 changes in context diffs.
563 *** The new command `diff-delete-trailing-whitespace' removes trailing
564 whitespace introduced by a diff.
568 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
569 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
570 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
572 *** Typing M-n in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
573 `dired-do-chown', `dired-do-touch' pulls the file attributes of the
576 *** When the region is active, `m' (`dired-mark'), `u' (`dired-unmark'),
577 `DEL' (`dired-unmark-backward'), `d' (`dired-flag-file-deletion')
578 mark/unmark/flag all files in the active region.
580 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
581 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists.
582 In Transient Mark mode the default is the file at the active mark.
584 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
585 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
588 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode.
593 *** New module "notifications", which can send a notification when you
594 receive a private message or your nickname is mentioned.
597 *** ERC will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use any
601 *** New option `erc-lurker-hide-list', similar to `erc-hide-list', but
602 only applies to messages sent by lurkers.
605 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
606 See `flymake-fringe-indicator-position', `flymake-error-bitmap' and
607 `flymake-warning-bitmap'.
610 ** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
611 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
614 ** The FFAP option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
615 specifying URL types that should be converted to remote file names at
616 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
619 ** New Ibuffer `derived-mode' filter, bound to `/ M'.
620 The old binding for `/ M' (filter by used-mode) is now bound to `/ m'.
623 ** `javascript-generic-mode' is now an obsolete alias for `js-mode'.
626 ** New option `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' specifies where the
627 `banish' mouse avoidance setting moves the mouse.
630 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
631 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
635 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
636 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
639 ** In Proced mode, new command `proced-renice' renices marked processes.
644 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
645 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
646 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
649 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
650 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
651 python-indent | python-indent-offset
652 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
653 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
654 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
656 *** Some user options have been removed:
658 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
660 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
661 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
663 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
664 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
666 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
667 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
669 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
670 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
672 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
673 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
676 *** Some commands have been replaced:
677 Old command | New command
678 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
679 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
680 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
681 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
682 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
683 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
684 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
685 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
686 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
687 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
688 python-beginning-of-defun-function | python-nav-beginning-of-defun
689 python-end-of-defun-function | python-nav-end-of-defun
690 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
691 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
692 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
693 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
694 python-shell-switch-to-shell
695 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
696 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
697 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
700 ** reStructuredText mode
702 *** Keybindings (see `C-c C-h'), TAB indentation, filling and auto-filling,
703 fontification, comment handling, and customization have all been revised
706 *** Support for `imenu' and `which-function-mode'.
708 *** The reStructuredText syntax is more closely covered.
709 Sphinx support has been improved.
711 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
713 *** A negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
715 *** The window configuration is reset after displaying a TOC.
717 *** The constant `rst-version' describes the rst.el package version.
722 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
724 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
726 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
729 ** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies the buffer to use
730 for a new asynchronous `shell-command' when the default output buffer
731 `*Async Shell Command*' is already in use.
734 ** SQL mode has a new option `sql-db2-escape-newlines'.
735 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
736 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
737 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
739 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
741 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
742 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
746 *** The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
747 now deprecated in favor of the customizable face `term'.
749 *** You can customize how to display ANSI terminal colors and styles
750 by customizing the corresponding `term-color-<COLOR>',
751 `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold' faces.
755 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy definitions.
756 See the manual for details.
758 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
762 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
763 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
764 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
765 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
766 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
768 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
769 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
770 in case that is not properly encoded.
775 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
777 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
779 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
781 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
784 ** `which-func-modes' now defaults to t, so Which Function mode, when
785 enabled, applies to all applicable major modes.
788 ** winner-mode-hook now runs when the mode is disabled, as well as when it is
792 ** Hooks renamed to avoid obsolete "-hooks" suffix:
793 *** semantic-lex-reset-hooks -> semantic-lex-reset-functions
794 *** semantic-change-hooks -> semantic-change-functions
795 *** semantic-edits-new-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-new-change-functions
796 *** semantic-edits-delete-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-delete-change-functions
797 *** semantic-edits-reparse-change-hooks -> semantic-edits-reparse-change-functions
798 *** semanticdb-save-database-hooks -> semanticdb-save-database-functions
799 *** c-prepare-bug-report-hooks -> c-prepare-bug-report-hook
800 *** rcirc-sentinel-hooks -> rcirc-sentinel-functions
801 *** rcirc-receive-message-hooks -> rcirc-receive-message-functions
802 *** rcirc-activity-hooks -> rcirc-activity-functions
803 *** rcirc-print-hooks -> rcirc-print-functions
804 *** dbus-event-error-hooks -> dbus-event-error-functions
805 *** eieio-pre-method-execution-hooks -> eieio-pre-method-execution-functions
806 *** checkdoc-style-hooks -> checkdoc-style-functions
807 *** checkdoc-comment-style-hooks -> checkdoc-comment-style-functions
808 *** archive-extract-hooks -> archive-extract-hook
809 *** filesets-cache-fill-content-hooks -> filesets-cache-fill-content-hook
810 *** hfy-post-html-hooks -> hfy-post-html-hook
811 *** nndiary-request-create-group-hooks -> nndiary-request-create-group-functions
812 *** nndiary-request-update-info-hooks -> nndiary-request-update-info-functions
813 *** nndiary-request-accept-article-hooks -> nndiary-request-accept-article-functions
814 *** gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-hooks -> gnus-subscribe-newsgroup-functions
816 ** Obsolete packages:
819 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
820 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
821 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
836 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
839 ** set-buffer-multibyte now signals an error in narrowed buffers.
842 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
843 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
844 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
845 sequence in later calls.
848 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
849 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
850 depends on the graphical library.
853 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
854 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
855 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
858 ** `select-window' now always makes the window's buffer current.
859 It does so even if the window was selected before.
862 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
863 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
864 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
868 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
869 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, `defun' and
870 `defmacro' currently return the name of the newly defined
871 function/macro, but this should not be relied upon.
874 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
875 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
878 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
879 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
880 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
883 ** The CL package's `get-setf-method' function no longer exists.
884 Generalized variables are now part of core Emacs Lisp, and implemented
885 differently to the way cl.el used to do it. It is not possible to
886 define a compatible replacement for `get-setf-method'. See the file
887 gv.el for internal details of the new implementation.
890 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
891 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
894 *** Renamed functions
896 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
897 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
898 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
899 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
900 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
901 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
902 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
903 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
907 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
908 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
909 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
910 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
911 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
914 *** Renamed Lisp variables
915 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
916 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
917 deactivate-current-input-method-function
920 ** Some obsolete functions, variables, and faces have been removed:
921 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'
922 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
923 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
924 *** `iswitchb-read-buffer'
925 *** `sc-version', `sc-submit-bug-report'
926 *** `set-char-table-default'
927 *** `string-to-sequence' (use `string-to-list' or `string-to-vector')
928 *** `compile-internal'
930 *** `mode-line-inverse-video'
931 *** `follow-mode-off-hook'
932 *** `cvs-commit-buffer-require-final-newline'
933 (use `log-edit-require-final-newline' instead)
934 *** `cvs-changelog-full-paragraphs'
935 (use `log-edit-changelog-full-paragraphs' instead)
936 *** `cvs-diff-ignore-marks', `cvs-diff-buffer-name'
937 *** `vc-ignore-vc-files' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
938 *** `vc-master-templates' (use `vc-handled-backends' instead)
939 *** `vc-checkout-carefully'
942 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
944 ** New sampling-based Elisp profiler.
945 Try M-x profiler-start, do some work, and then call M-x profiler-report.
946 When finished, use M-x profiler-stop. The sampling rate can be based on
947 CPU time or memory allocations.
950 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
951 `setf' is autoloaded; `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
952 You can define your own generalized variables using `gv-define-simple-setter',
953 `gv-define-setter', etc.
956 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
957 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
961 *** `read-regexp' has a new argument HISTORY; the first argument PROMPT
962 of `read-regexp' accepts a string ending with a colon and space, and its
963 second argument DEFAULTS can be a list of strings accessible via M-n
964 in the minibuffer ahead of other hard-coded useful regexp-related values.
965 More commands use `read-regexp' now to read their regexp arguments.
969 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
970 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
973 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
974 table, but with a different prefix.
979 *** New error type and new function `user-error'.
980 These do not trigger the debugger.
983 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill', saying what to do with the
984 debugger buffer when exiting debug.
987 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
988 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
989 to work out which code is doing something.
991 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
992 recursive invocations.
996 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
997 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
999 *** Additional values recognized for option `window-combination-limit'.
1002 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window', similar to
1003 `with-output-to-temp-buffer'.
1006 *** `temp-buffer-resize-mode' no longer resizes windows that have been
1010 *** New command `fit-frame-to-buffer' adjusts the frame height to
1014 *** The command `fit-window-to-buffer' can adjust the frame height
1015 if the new option `fit-frame-to-buffer' is non-nil.
1018 *** New option switch-to-buffer-preserve-window-point to restore a
1019 window's point when switching buffers.
1021 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected',
1022 and `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1024 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
1025 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
1028 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
1029 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
1031 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
1032 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
1034 *** New display action alist entries `window-height' and `window-width'
1035 to specify size of new window created by `display-buffer'.
1037 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
1038 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
1041 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
1043 **** `special-display-regexps'
1045 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
1047 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
1049 **** `special-display-function'
1051 **** `display-buffer-function'
1053 **** `dired-shrink-to-fit'
1057 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
1058 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
1059 by the underlying C implementation.
1061 *** `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
1062 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC), where the new PSEC slot specifies picoseconds.
1063 PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current machines. Other
1064 functions that use this format, such as file-attributes and
1065 format-time-string, have been changed accordingly. Old-format time
1066 stamps are still accepted.
1068 *** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
1069 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
1070 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
1071 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
1073 *** Last-modified time stamps in undo lists now are of the form
1074 (t HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS PSECS) instead of (t HI-SECS . LO-SECS).
1077 ** Floating point functions now always return special values like NaN,
1078 instead of signaling errors, if given invalid args, e.g. (log -1.0).
1079 Previously, they returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors
1080 on others. The affected functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt,
1081 log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
1084 ** Emacs tries to macroexpand interpreted (non-compiled) files during load.
1085 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code,
1086 but can also bump into previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
1087 These are generally harmless: they will simply cause the macro calls
1088 to be left for later expansion (as before), but will result in a
1089 warning ("Eager macro-expansion skipped due to cycle") describing the cycle.
1090 You may wish to restructure your code so this does not happen.
1092 ** Miscellaneous new functions:
1094 *** `autoloadp' tests if its argument is an autoloaded object.
1096 *** `autoload-do-load' performs the autoloading operation.
1098 *** `buffer-narrowed-p' tests if the buffer is narrowed.
1100 *** `file-name-base' returns a file name sans directory and extension.
1102 *** `function-get' fetches a function property, following aliases.
1104 *** `posnp' tests if an object is a `posn'.
1106 *** `set-temporary-overlay-map' sets up a temporary keymap that
1107 takes precedence over most other maps for a short while (normally one key).
1109 *** `system-users' returns the user names on the system.
1111 *** `system-groups' returns the group names on the system.
1113 *** `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
1116 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
1118 ** Changes to special forms and macros
1120 *** `defun' and `defmacro' are now macros rather than special forms
1122 *** `kbd' is now a function rather than a macro.
1125 ** New fringe bitmap `exclamation-mark'.
1128 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
1130 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1132 *** `automount-dir-prefix' (use `directory-abbrev-alist')
1134 *** `buffer-has-markers-at'
1136 *** `macro-declaration-function' (use `macro-declarations-alist')
1138 *** `window-system-version' (provides no useful information)
1140 *** `dired-pop-to-buffer' (use `dired-mark-pop-up')
1142 *** `query-replace-interactive'
1144 *** `font-list-limit' (has had no effect since Emacs < 23)
1147 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
1150 ** Cygwin builds can use the native MS Windows user interface.
1151 Pass --with-w32 to configure. The default remains the X11 interface.
1153 ** Two new functions are available in Cygwin builds:
1154 `cygwin-convert-file-name-from-windows' and
1155 `cygwin-convert-file-name-to-windows'. These functions allow Lisp
1156 code to access the Cygwin file-name mapping machinery to convert
1157 between Cygwin and Windows-native file and directory names.
1159 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
1160 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
1161 `mouse-autoselect-window'.
1164 ** On MS Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
1167 ** On MS Windows, you can pass --without-libxml2 to configure.bat to omit
1168 support for libxml2, even if its presence is detected.
1171 ** On Mac OS X, the Nextstep port requires OS X 10.4 or later.
1174 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
1175 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
1178 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
1180 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
1183 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
1185 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
1186 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
1187 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
1190 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
1191 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1192 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1193 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
1195 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
1196 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1197 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1198 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
1200 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
1201 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1202 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1203 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
1204 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
1206 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
1207 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
1208 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
1209 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
1211 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
1212 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
1214 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
1215 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
1216 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
1219 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
1220 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
1221 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
1223 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
1224 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
1225 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
1227 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
1228 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
1230 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
1231 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
1234 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
1236 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
1237 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
1238 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
1240 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
1241 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
1242 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
1246 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
1250 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
1251 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
1253 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
1255 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
1256 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
1258 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
1260 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
1261 default completion style in certain circumstances.
1263 *** New completion style `substring'.
1265 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
1267 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
1271 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
1272 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
1273 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
1274 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
1275 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
1276 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
1278 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
1279 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
1280 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
1282 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
1283 and Mail mode changes
1285 ** Emacs server and client changes
1287 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
1289 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
1291 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
1292 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
1294 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
1295 its exit status is 1.
1297 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
1298 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
1299 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
1301 ** Internationalization changes
1303 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
1304 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
1305 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
1306 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
1307 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
1308 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
1310 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
1311 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
1313 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1314 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
1315 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
1316 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
1319 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
1320 the right window edge.
1322 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
1323 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
1324 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
1325 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
1326 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
1328 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
1329 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
1331 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
1332 (U+2010 and U+2011).
1334 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
1335 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
1336 automatically select it.
1338 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
1339 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
1340 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
1342 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
1343 selected for installation.
1345 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
1347 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
1348 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
1349 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
1351 ** Custom theme changes
1353 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
1354 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
1356 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
1357 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
1358 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
1359 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
1360 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
1361 built-in Custom themes.
1363 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
1364 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
1365 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
1366 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
1368 ** Improved GTK integration
1370 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
1371 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
1373 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
1374 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
1375 the default is taken from desktop settings.
1377 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
1378 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
1379 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
1382 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
1383 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
1385 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
1386 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
1388 ** Graphical interface changes
1390 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1391 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1392 displayed as a space.
1394 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1395 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1397 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1398 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1399 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1403 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1404 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1406 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1407 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1408 do the right thing in batch mode.
1410 ** Scrolling changes
1412 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1413 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1414 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1415 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1417 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1419 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1420 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1422 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1423 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1425 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1426 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1427 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1428 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1429 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1431 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1432 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1433 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1434 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1437 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1438 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1440 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1441 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1442 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1443 now includes the SELinux context.
1445 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1446 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1450 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1451 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1453 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1454 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1456 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1458 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1459 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1460 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1463 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1464 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1465 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1466 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1467 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1469 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1470 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1472 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1473 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1474 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1475 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1480 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1481 in the quitted window.
1483 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1484 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1486 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1488 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1489 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1490 for choosing the displaying window).
1492 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1493 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1495 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1496 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1498 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1499 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1500 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1501 from which such space was obtained.
1503 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1504 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1505 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1506 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1507 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1509 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1510 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1511 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1513 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1514 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1516 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1517 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1518 been shown in a specific window.
1520 ** Minibuffer changes
1522 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1523 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1524 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1526 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1527 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1528 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1530 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1532 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1534 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1535 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1536 successful operation.
1538 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1539 for `list-colors-display'.
1541 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1544 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1548 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1549 `isearch-yank-line'.
1551 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1552 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1554 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1556 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1558 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1559 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1560 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1561 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1564 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1565 also deletes newlines around point.
1569 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1570 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1571 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1574 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1575 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1576 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1578 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1579 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1580 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1581 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1583 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1585 ** Selection changes.
1587 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1588 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1589 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1590 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1592 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1593 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1595 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1596 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1597 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1598 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1600 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1601 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1602 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1603 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1604 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1606 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1608 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1609 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1610 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1612 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1614 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1615 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1616 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1618 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1619 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1621 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1622 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1623 between applications.
1625 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1627 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1628 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1629 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1630 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1631 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1633 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1635 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1636 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1638 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1639 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1640 number to count from and for a format string.
1642 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1643 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1644 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1645 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1646 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1648 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1649 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1650 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1651 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1652 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1654 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1655 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1656 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1657 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1658 follows `replace-match'.
1661 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1663 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1667 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1668 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1669 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1670 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1672 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1674 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1676 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1680 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1682 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1683 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1685 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1687 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1688 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1690 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1691 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1693 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1694 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1695 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1697 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1699 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1700 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1702 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1703 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1704 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1706 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1707 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1708 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1710 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1711 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1715 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1716 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1718 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1720 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1721 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1724 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1725 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1726 parsed as a statement continuation.
1728 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1732 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1733 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1735 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1736 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1737 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1739 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1740 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1741 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1746 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1747 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1748 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1750 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1751 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1753 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1755 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1756 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1760 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1763 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1764 optionally do not register names.
1766 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1767 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1771 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1772 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1773 instead of using the current buffer.
1775 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1776 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1780 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1781 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1783 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1784 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1785 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1786 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1790 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1791 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1792 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1796 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1797 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1798 debugging of several threads.
1802 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1803 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1807 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1808 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1809 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1810 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1811 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1813 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1814 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1815 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1818 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1820 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1822 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1823 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1824 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1826 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1827 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1829 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1831 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1833 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1834 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1835 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1836 default), this performs tag completion.
1838 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1839 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1841 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1842 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1843 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1847 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1848 in the Rmail incoming message.
1850 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1851 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1852 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1856 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1857 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1858 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1860 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1861 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1865 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1866 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1867 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1870 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1871 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1872 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1873 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1874 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1875 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1876 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1877 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1879 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1880 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1882 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1884 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1886 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1887 the credentials file.
1889 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1890 If you had that set, you need to put
1892 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1894 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1896 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1897 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1898 to the address you wish to use instead.
1902 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1903 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1905 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1906 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1907 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1908 connection is established.
1910 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1911 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1913 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1914 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1915 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1916 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1918 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1919 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1920 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1921 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1922 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1923 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1925 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1926 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1928 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1929 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1930 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1932 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1933 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1935 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1939 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1943 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1945 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1946 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1948 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1949 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1951 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1952 default value to "".
1954 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1955 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1957 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1958 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1959 the degree of parallelism.
1961 ** VC and related modes
1963 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1964 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1965 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1966 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1967 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1969 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1971 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1972 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1973 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1974 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1975 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1977 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1978 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1980 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1981 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1982 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1983 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1984 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1985 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1987 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1988 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1990 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1991 this was not advertised at the time.
1993 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1994 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1995 this was not advertised at the time.
2001 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
2003 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
2004 You can get a comparable behavior with:
2005 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
2006 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
2008 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
2010 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
2012 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
2014 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
2015 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
2017 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
2021 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
2022 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
2024 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
2025 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
2027 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
2029 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
2031 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
2034 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
2036 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
2037 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
2039 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
2040 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
2041 matching closing one.
2043 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
2044 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
2045 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
2046 electric-indent-functions.
2048 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
2049 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
2050 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
2052 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
2053 from which other modes can be derived.
2055 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
2057 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
2058 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
2059 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
2060 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
2063 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
2064 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
2066 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
2067 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
2069 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
2071 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
2072 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
2073 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
2074 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
2075 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
2076 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
2079 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
2081 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
2082 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
2084 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
2086 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
2087 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
2088 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
2089 command still toggles the minor mode.
2091 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
2092 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
2093 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
2094 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
2095 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
2097 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
2098 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
2099 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
2100 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
2101 argument `bidi-class'.
2103 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
2104 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
2105 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
2106 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
2108 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
2109 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
2110 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
2113 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
2114 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
2115 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
2116 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
2117 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
2118 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
2119 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
2121 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
2122 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
2123 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
2124 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
2127 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
2128 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
2129 replaced all known uses.
2131 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
2132 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
2133 major mode is special).
2135 ** Menu and tool bar changes
2137 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
2138 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
2139 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
2140 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
2141 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
2142 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
2144 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
2145 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
2147 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
2148 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
2149 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
2150 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
2152 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
2153 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
2154 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
2156 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
2158 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
2159 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
2160 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
2162 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
2163 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
2164 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
2165 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
2166 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
2167 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
2168 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
2169 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
2170 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
2171 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
2172 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
2173 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
2174 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
2175 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
2176 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
2177 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
2178 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
2179 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
2180 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
2181 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
2182 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
2184 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
2185 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
2187 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
2188 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
2189 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
2190 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
2191 *** `e' (`float-e').
2193 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
2194 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
2196 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
2197 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
2198 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
2199 `finder-keywords-hash'.
2201 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
2202 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
2203 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
2206 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
2208 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
2209 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
2210 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
2211 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
2214 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
2215 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
2217 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
2218 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
2220 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
2222 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
2223 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
2225 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
2226 declared as dynamically bound.
2228 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
2230 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
2231 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
2232 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
2234 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
2236 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
2237 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
2239 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
2240 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
2241 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
2242 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
2243 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
2244 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
2246 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
2247 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
2248 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
2252 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
2253 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
2254 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
2255 buffer) in the window tree.
2257 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
2260 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
2261 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
2262 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
2263 act on any window including internal ones.
2265 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
2266 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
2267 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
2268 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
2269 and `window-body-height' are provided.
2271 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
2272 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
2273 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
2274 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
2275 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
2277 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
2278 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
2279 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
2280 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
2281 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
2282 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
2284 *** Window resizing functions.
2285 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
2286 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
2287 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
2289 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
2290 live window on that frame instead.
2292 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
2293 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
2294 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
2295 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
2296 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
2297 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
2299 *** Window-local buffer lists.
2300 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
2301 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
2302 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
2303 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
2304 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
2306 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
2307 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
2308 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
2309 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
2311 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
2312 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
2313 The old names are kept as aliases.
2317 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
2318 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
2319 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
2320 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
2322 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
2324 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
2325 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
2326 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
2327 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
2328 are user-customizable variables.
2330 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
2332 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
2333 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
2334 frame or window as an Elisp object.
2338 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
2339 properties of the current completion:
2340 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
2341 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
2343 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
2344 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
2346 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
2348 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
2349 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
2350 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
2351 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
2352 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
2353 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
2354 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
2356 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
2357 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
2358 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
2360 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
2361 behavior of `completing-read'.
2363 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
2364 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
2366 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
2367 Instead, the offending function is removed.
2371 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
2372 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
2373 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
2374 non-nil return value.
2376 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
2377 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
2378 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
2379 advertised at the time.)
2383 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
2384 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
2386 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
2388 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
2390 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2391 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2392 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2394 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2395 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2397 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2398 named Emacs server instances.
2400 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2401 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2403 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2404 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2406 ** New input reading functions
2408 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2409 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2411 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2412 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2415 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2417 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2418 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2419 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2422 ** Syntax parsing changes
2424 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2425 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2426 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2427 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2428 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2429 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2430 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2431 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2434 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2436 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2438 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2440 ** Major and minor mode changes
2442 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2443 as well as those in the -*- line.
2445 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2448 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2449 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2450 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2452 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2453 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2455 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2456 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2457 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2459 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2461 ** File-handling changes
2463 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2464 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2465 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2466 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2468 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2470 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2471 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2472 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2476 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2478 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2480 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2482 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2485 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2486 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2488 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2489 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2491 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2492 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2493 ImageMagick installation supports.
2495 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2496 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2499 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2500 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2502 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2503 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2504 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2505 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2507 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2508 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2509 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2510 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2512 ** XML and HTML parsing
2513 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2514 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2515 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2516 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2518 ** Networking and encryption changes
2520 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2521 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2522 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2523 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2524 must also be supplied.
2526 *** New library gnutls.el.
2527 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2528 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2529 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2530 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2531 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2532 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2535 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2536 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2537 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2541 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2543 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2544 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2545 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2546 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2547 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2548 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2550 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2551 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2553 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2554 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2555 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2556 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2557 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2558 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2560 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2562 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2563 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2564 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2565 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2567 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2568 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2570 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2571 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2572 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2573 an empty uninterned symbol.
2575 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2577 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2579 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2580 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2582 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2583 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2585 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2587 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2588 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2590 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2593 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2595 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2596 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2598 ** New configure.bat options
2600 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2602 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2604 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2606 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2608 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2610 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2611 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2613 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2614 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2616 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2617 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2620 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2621 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2623 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2624 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2625 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2626 (at your option) any later version.
2628 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2629 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2630 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2631 GNU General Public License for more details.
2633 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2634 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2639 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"