comparison etc/NEWS @ 26300:25356c16306f

Expanded description of `field' property from Miles Bader.

26299:94438ac8953f

There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
buffers.  A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
text-property.

Certain functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
to the boundary between fields (beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
commands continue into the next field if repeated).

The new function constrain-to-field may be used to achieve similar
behavior; other new field functions include field-beginning, field-end,
erase-field, and field-string.

Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that many
editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.

+++
** Image support.

Emacs can now display images.  Images are inserted into text by giving

26300:25356c16306f

There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
buffers.  A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
text-property.

Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
commands continue into the next field if repeated.

Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.

The following functions are defined for operating on fields:

- Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE

Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
constrained position if that is is different.

If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
fields.

If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
unconstrained.  This useful for commands that move by line, like
C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
only in the case where they can still move to the right line.

- Function: erase-field &optional POS

Erases the field surrounding POS.
A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.

- Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE

Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.

- Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE

Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
then the end of the *following* field is returned.

- Function: field-string &optional POS

Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.

- Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS

Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.

+++
** Image support.

Emacs can now display images.  Images are inserted into text by giving