You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
+Temporary note:
++++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
+--- means no change in the manuals is called for.
+When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
+so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
+
+\f
+* Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4
+
+** Emacs can be compiled with POSIX ACL support.
+This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
+build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux. To prevent this, use the
+configure option `--without-acl'.
+
+** The configure option --with-crt-dir has been removed.
+It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked specially.
+
+\f
+* Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4
+
+\f
+* Changes in Emacs 24.4
+
++++
+** `apropos-variable' is now `apropos-user-option'
+`apropos-user-option' shows all user options while `apropos-variable'
+shows all variables. When called with a universal prefix argument,
+the two commands swap their behaviors. When `apropos-do-all' is
+non-nil, they output the same results.
+
++++
+** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
+if there is one.
+
+** If the new variable `enable-dir-local-variables' is nil,
+directory local variables are ignored. May be useful for some modes
+that want to ignore directory-locals while still respecting file-locals.
+
+** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
+This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
+simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.
+
+** `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function to set up the
+initial buffer.
+
+** ACL support has been added.
++++
+*** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
++++
+*** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set the ACL
+entries of a file. On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via
+libacl. On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the
+POSIX ACL interfaces.
+
+** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
+Available only on X, this option allows to control over-scrolling
+using the scroll bar (i.e. dragging the thumb down even when the end
+of the buffer is visible).
+
+\f
+* Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4
+
+** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
+bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.
+
+** In keymaps where SPC scrolls, S-SPC now scrolls in the reverse direction.
+Eg View mode, etc.
+
+\f
+* Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
+
+** Delphi mode is now called OPascal mode.
+*** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.
+*** `delphi-newline-always-indents' is not supported any more
+use `electric-indent-mode' instead.
+*** `delphi-tab' is gone, replaced by `indent-for-tab-command'.
+
+** jit-lock-debug-mode lets you use the debuggers on code run via jit-lock.
+
+** completing-read-multiple's separator can now be a regexp.
+The default separator is changed to allow surrounding spaces around the comma.
+
+** Battery
+
+*** Battery information via the BSD `apm' utility is now supported.
+
+** cl-lib
+
+*** New macro cl-tagbody.
+
++++
+*** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.
+
+** Calc
+
+*** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
+uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1. Previously Calc used the
+Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
+December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
+consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.
+
+*** The new variable `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure the
+date when Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
+Nil, the default value, means to always use the Gregorian calendar.
+The value (YEAR MONTH DAY) means to start using the Gregorian calendar
+on the given date.
+
+*** Support for ISO 8601 dates.
+
+** Dired
+
+*** New minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' hides details.
+
+** ERC
+
+*** New option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
+If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally paste large
+amounts of data into the ERC input.
+
+** Icomplete is a bit more like IDO.
+*** key bindings to navigate through and select the completions.
+*** The icomplete-separator is customizable, and its default has changed.
+*** Removed icomplete-show-key-bindings.
+
+** Image mode
+
+*** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
+visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
+directory, respectively.
+
+*** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
+`f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
+next or previous frame. `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.
+
+---
+*** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
+When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
+It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
+callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.
+
+** Isearch
+
+*** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
+and adds it to the search string.
+
+** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.4.
+See MH-E-NEWS for details.
+
+---
+** The unrmail command converts from BABYL to mboxrd rather than mboxo.
+Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.
+
+---
+** Similarly, customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects
+of how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.
+
++++
+** New function `ses-rename-cell' to give SES cells arbitrary names.
+
+** trace-function was largely rewritten.
+New features include:
+- no prompting for the destination buffer, unless a prefix-arg was used.
+- additionally to prompting for a destination buffer, when a prefix-arg is
+ used, the user can enter a "context", i.e. Lisp expression whose value at the
+ time the function is entered/exited will be printed along with the function
+ name and arguments. Useful to trace the value of (current-buffer) or
+ (point) when the function is invoked.
+
+** New command `delete-duplicate-lines' has two types of operation:
+when its arg ADJACENT is non-nil (when called interactively with C-u C-u)
+it works like the utility `uniq'. Otherwise by default it deletes
+duplicate lines everywhere in the region without regard to adjacency.
+
+** New `cycle-spacing' command allows cycling between having just one
+space, no spaces, or reverting to the original spacing. Like
+`just-one-space' command it can handle or ignore newlines and
+leave different number of spaces.
+
+** Tramp
+
++++
+*** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
+devices by the Android Debug Bridge. The variable `tramp-adb-program'
+can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.
+
+*** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
+"scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued. The ssh option
+"ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
+when possible.
+
++++
+*** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
+which support POSIX ACLs.
+
+** Woman
+
+*** The commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
+are obsolete. Customize the `woman-* faces instead.
+
+** Obsolete packages:
+
+*** longlines.el is obsolete; use visual-line-mode instead.
+
+*** terminal.el is obsolete; use term.el instead.
+
++++
+*** yow.el is obsolete; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.
+
+---
+*** The Info-edit command is obsolete. Editing Info nodes by hand
+has not been relevant for some time.
+
+\f
+* New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4
+** New nadvice.el package offering lighter-weight advice facilities.
+It is layered as:
+- add-function/remove-function which can be used to add/remove code on any
+ function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
+- advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named function,
+ much like `defadvice' does.
+
+\f
+* Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
+
+** Removed inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus.
+
+** frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
+More specifically, the redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
+value when looking up variables.
+
+** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in symbol-function.
+`symbol-function' never signals `void-function' any more.
+`fboundp' returns non-nil if the symbol was `fset' to nil.
+
+** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
+special-forms any more.
+
+** `dolist' in lexical-binding mode does not bind VAR in RESULT any more.
+VAR was bound to nil which was not tremendously useful and just lead to
+spurious warnings about an unused var.
+
+** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
+The second argument is no longer an SELinux context, instead it is an
+alist of extended attributes as returned by the new function
+`file-extended-attributes'. The attributes can be applied to another
+file using `set-file-extended-attributes'.
+
+\f
+* Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4
+
+** Support for filesystem notifications.
+Emacs now supports notifications of filesystem changes, such as
+creation, modification, and deletion of files. This requires the
+'inotify' API on GNU/Linux systems. On MS-Windows systems, this is
+supported for Windows XP and newer versions.
+
+** Changes in autorevert.el
+
+---
+*** If Emacs is compiled with file notification support, notifications
+are used instead of checking the time stamp of the files. You can
+disable this by setting the user option `auto-revert-use-notify' to
+nil. Alternatively, a regular expression of directories to be
+excluded from file notifications can be specified by
+`auto-revert-notify-exclude-dir-regexp'.
+
+---
+*** The new user option `auto-revert-remote-files' enables reversion
+of remote files when set to non-nil.
+
+** Face changes
+
+*** The `face-spec-set' is now analogous to `setq' for face specs.
+Its third arg now accepts values specifying exactly which face spec to
+set (defface, custom, or user spec), and it directly sets the relevant
+property using the supplied face spec.
+
+*** Face specs set via Custom themes now replace the `defface' spec
+rather than inheriting from it (as do face specs set via Customize).
+
+*** New face characteristic (supports :underline (:style wave))
+specifies whether or not the terminal can display a wavy line.
+
+** Image API
+
++++
+*** `image-animated-p' is now `image-multi-frame-p'.
+It returns non-nil for any image that contains multiple frames,
+whether or not it specifies a frame delay.
+
++++
+*** When animating images that do not specify a frame delay,
+Emacs uses `image-default-frame-delay'.
+
++++
+*** New functions `image-current-frame' and `image-show-frame' for getting
+and setting the current frame of a multi-frame image.
+
+** time-to-seconds is not obsolete any more.
+** New function special-form-p.
+** Docstrings can be made dynamic by adding a `dynamic-docstring-function'
+text-property on the first char.
+
+** The `defalias-fset-function' property lets you catch calls to defalias
+and redirect them to your own function instead of `fset'.
+
+** The 9th element returned by `file-attributes' is now unspecified.
+Formerly, it was t if the file's gid would change if file were deleted
+and recreated. This value has been inaccurate for years on many
+platforms, and nobody seems to have noticed or cared.
+
+** The function `file-ownership-preserved-p' now has an optional
+argument GROUP which causes it check for file group too. This can be
+used in place of the 9th element of `file-attributes'.
+
+** New functions `group-gid' and `group-real-gid'.
+
+** The 6th argument to `copy-file' has been renamed to
+`preserve-extended-attributes' as it now handles both SELinux context
+and ACL entries.
+
+\f
+* Changes in Emacs 24.4 on Non-Free Operating Systems
+
++++
+** The "generate a backtrace on fatal error" feature now works on MS Windows.
+The backtrace is written to the 'emacs_backtrace.txt' file in the
+directory where Emacs was running.
+
++++
+** The variable `buffer-file-type' is no longer supported.
+Setting it has no effect, and %t in the mode-line format is ignored.
+Likewise, `file-name-buffer-file-type-alist' is now obsolete, and
+modifying it has no effect.
+
+---
+** Lock files now work on MS-Windows.
+This allows to avoid losing your edits if the same file is being
+edited in another Emacs session or by another user. See the node
+"Interlocking" in the Emacs User Manual for the details. To disable
+file locking, customize `create-lockfiles' to nil.
+
+** Improved fullscreen support on Mac OS X.
+Both native (>= OSX 10.7) and "old style" fullscreen are supported.
+Customize `ns-use-native-fullscreen' to change style. For >= 10.7
+native is the default.
+
\f
* Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
*** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
+** Calc
+
+*** Algebraic simplification mode is now the default.
+To restrict to the limited simplifications given by the former
+default simplification mode, use `m I'.
+
** Calendar
*** You can customize the header text that appears above each calendar month.
*** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
+** Calc
+
+*** Support for musical notes.
+
+*** Support for logarithmic units.
+
+*** No longer uses the tex prefix for TeX specific unit names when
+using TeX or LaTeX mode.
+
+*** New option to highlight selections using faces.
+
+*** `calc-histogram' has the option of using a vector to determine the bins.
+
+*** New "O" option prefix.
+
+*** Use the "O" prefix to "d r" (`calc-radix') to turn on twos-complement mode.
+
** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
*** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".