# HG changeset patch # User Gerd Moellmann # Date 966270659 0 # Node ID 550344dcef4322e297164e64cc424d099ff0d0d3 # Parent cbfd751370785aba1b03deeb30833f32b2f37d1a *** empty log message *** diff -r cbfd75137078 -r 550344dcef43 etc/NEWS --- a/etc/NEWS Mon Aug 14 14:26:59 2000 +0000 +++ b/etc/NEWS Mon Aug 14 16:30:59 2000 +0000 @@ -1,9 +1,9 @@ -GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000 +GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-14 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. See the end for copying conditions. Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. -For older news, see the file ONEWS. +For older news, see the file NEWS.1. * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1 @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ to list them. ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs -Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if they these are available. +Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available. ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available. @@ -3440,4985 +3440,9 @@ overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't support a vertical-bar cursor). -^L -* Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes - -** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard -input. - -** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos. - -** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages. - -** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not -only for character input, but also in incremental search. The -exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets -(e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence -(e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search. - -** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has -been added. - -^L -* Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change - -** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added. - -^L -* Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes. - -** Not new, but not mentioned before: -M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark. - -* Changes in Emacs 20.4 - -** Init file may be called .emacs.el. - -You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'. -Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name -`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way. - -If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file -is the one that is used. - -** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return -the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous). -Also, you can specify a place to put the error output, -separate from the command's regular output. -Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer -says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name. -In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies -the buffer name. - -When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error -output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate -it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not -cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there. - -** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in -the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom, -is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers -created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs. - -** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For -example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names -match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the -quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name. - -** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches -now have the same feature as occur and query-replace: -if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then -they never ignore case. - -** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned -under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually -applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents -of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or -just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs -convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a -part of the general feature of coding system conversion. - -If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to -the same format that was used in the file before. - -You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable -`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group. - -** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been -renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling. -This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected. - -** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed. -The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a -buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for -your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format -is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual -end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for -Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac). - -The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos, -eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings, -control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line -format. You can now customize these variables. - -** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a -filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a -filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of -enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil. - -** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode -in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given -windows just big enough to hold the whole contents. - -** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function -dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file -doesn't have any effect. - -** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process, -not one per buffer. - -** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to -use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line: - (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup) - -** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el. -To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the -`auto-show-mode' command. - -** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to -avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous -versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font -choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change -occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then. - -** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's -cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel. - -** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the -character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this -feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil. - -** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at -the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an -interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode -and variable specification, as well as on the first line. - -** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters. - -The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system -that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and -one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that -codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character -set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc. - -Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates -from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported. - -IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have -equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to -a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to -`?' on other systems. - -IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this -feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on -Unix. - -Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the -current codepage when it starts. - -** Mail changes - -*** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if -`mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime', -appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if -non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other -MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three -headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is -latin-1: - - MIME-version: 1.0 - Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 - Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit - -*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the -default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than -default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than -sendmail-coding-system and the local value of -buffer-file-coding-system. - -You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set -sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing -mail. - -*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters, -if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them, -Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a -list of possible coding systems. - -** CC Mode changes - -*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major -modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no -longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's -docstring for details. - -*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic -symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is -found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a -prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied -lineup functions use this feature currently. - -*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and -"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java. - -*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for -"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines. - -*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately -from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new -symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on -c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for -anonymous classes. - -*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific -syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont - -*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol -inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike -support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup -function c-lineup-inexpr-block. - -*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists -(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open -brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's. -c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces -(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified). - -*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default. - -*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line. - -*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren) -for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed. - -*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero. - -*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation -associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace. -This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some -circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the -class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that). - -** Gnus changes. - -*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been -added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the -Gnus manual for the full story. - -*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than -before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft -group, which is created automatically. - -*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header -values. - -*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's. - -*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message -outside the region: `C-c C-v'. - -*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with -`C-u C-c C-c'. - -*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization. - -*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit -re-highlighting of the article buffer. - -*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'. - -*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic -Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details. - -*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix -`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file. - -*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater -control over simplification. - -*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread. - -*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the -limit. - -*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text. - -*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'. - -*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed. -If you used this function in your initialization files, you must -rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead. - -*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix -`a' forces normal posting method. - -*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text --- `W d'. - -*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands' -to a non-nil value. - -*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling -where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers. - -*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer -has been added. - -*** A history of where mails have been split is available. - -*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'. - -*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting -`gnus-score-thread-simplify'. - -*** A new function for citing in Message has been added -- -`message-cite-original-without-signature'. - -*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command. - -*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has -been added. - -*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the -`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable. - -*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually -updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command. - -*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend. - -*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb. - -*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated. - -** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode - -*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give -options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in -nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "". - -*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a -TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some -of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run -TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you -can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET. - -*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'. -All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available -but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use -the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell. - -*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check -the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur* -buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular -mismatch. - -** Changes to RefTeX mode - -*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and -file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys. - -*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now -lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1 -characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be -removed from the label. - -*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use -a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'. - -*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the -customization group `reftex-finding-files'. - -*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to -`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular -expressions. - -*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers. - -** New/deleted modes and packages - -*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and -SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'. - -*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for -editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with -SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'. - -*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer -changes with a special face. - -*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and -this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use -Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el. - -* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4 - -** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better. -This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets, -conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters, -and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details, -check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual. - -The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds -Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim -distribution when the config.bat script is run. - -** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on -MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it -controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written -directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of -Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing -on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a -string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external -program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of -printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.) - -** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript -output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs -available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard -input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a -temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external -program. - -An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT, -and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these -programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax -automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name -as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is -ignored, as both programs have no useful switches. - -** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has -a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on -MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but -was not documented clearly before. - -** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals. -This includes Tetris and Snake. - -* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4 - -** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position -return the position of the beginning or end of the current line. -They both accept an optional argument, which has the same -meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line. - -** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument -WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing, -and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern. - -** Changes in the file-attributes function. - -*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float. -It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise. - -*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if -the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two -integers. - -** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of -files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same -arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that -file names and attributes are returned. - -** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for -sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It -accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes. -It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and -returns the result. - -** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern -to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern. - -** New functions for base64 conversion: - -The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer -into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region -performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported -optionally. - -Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar -job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string. - -** -The new function process-running-child-p -will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its -terminal to its own child process. - -** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature: -when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal -to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell -itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent. - -** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can -be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists. - -** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'. -:included is an alias for :visible. - -easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by -easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used -to move or copy menu entries. - -** Multibyte editing changes - -*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is -an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to -make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also -work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and -char-bytes in a loop typically as below: - (setq char (sref str idx) - idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx))) -The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete. - -If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character -(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code: - (charset-bytes (char-charset ch)) - -*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the -region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or -deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error: - - Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted - -This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character -across the boundary. - -*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include -`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases: - o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and - contains 8-bit characters. - o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and - contains invalid characters. - -*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove -text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly -preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing -text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct -way. - -*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems. -If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of -end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by -prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line. - -*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly -compose Thai characters in a string. - -** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third -argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name -for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as -menus should always use the third argument. - -** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char, -read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second -arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current -input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil. - -** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents -of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in -programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing -inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases. - -** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in -the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it -returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous -echo area contents. - - (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY) - -** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument -NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the -requested feature cannot be loaded. - -** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the -foreground color, background color or stipple pattern -means to clear out that attribute. - -** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame -gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame. - -** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now -read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode -unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the -end of with-output-to-temp-buffer. - -** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on -the gap of the current buffer. - -** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way -to convert between character positions and byte positions in the -current buffer. - -** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to -facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs. -These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check -it back in after any modifications have been made. - -* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3 - -** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of -the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and -/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those -directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and -subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path. - -Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose -names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded. -Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory -which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use -these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched. - -Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it -starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each -time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower. - -This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs -Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically -to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the -subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a -`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired -results. - -** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from -GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers -that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in -fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago. - -* Changes in Emacs 20.3 - -** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command -including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward, -it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can -perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition. - -** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a -specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired -region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing -further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo -command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made -within the region you originally specified, until either all of them -are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that -region. - -In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests -selective undo. - -** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are -unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte -buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same -effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs -Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode. - -The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files, -though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use --*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to -load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started. - -** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and -no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the -enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is -something that most users not do. - -** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste -operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X. -The coding system can make a difference for communication with other -applications. - -C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and -pasting operations. - -** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by -setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks -like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different -printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting -`ps-printer-name'. - -** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a -minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember -any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it -except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting -incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor -hits a new word. - -Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for -Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not -to be confused by TeX commands. - -You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something -correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by -clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu -of various alternative replacements and actions. - -Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces -the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several -corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in -alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if -flyspell-sort-corrections is nil. - -Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if -flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil. - -** Changes in input method usage. - -Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among -the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p -respectively. - -You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion. - -If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one -of the alternatives with Mouse-2. - -The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so -that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'. - - If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given. - - If the value is t, extra guidance is always given. - - If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only - when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py. - - If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is - given in the following case: - o When you are using a complex input method. - o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer. - -If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting -input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice, -and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with, -setting it to t is helpful. - -The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method. - -In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following -keys: - Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method - C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc - F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja -These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language -environment. - -** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file -names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the -minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to -get - - /usr/foo//etc/passwd - -which stands for the file /etc/passwd. - -Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list. -Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list. - -** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t -at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve -its owner and group. - -** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs -Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries. - -** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle -contents before inserting the specified string on each line. - -** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle -which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column -in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified -by the left edge of the rectangle. - -** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG, -increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit -C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful -for writing keyboard macros. - -** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories, -files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The -frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as -the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define -additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and -info. - -** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%. - -** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x -query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region -contents only. - -** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for -confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call -the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM -says whether to ask for confirmation in this case. - -** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited -non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file -literally. If you say no, it signals an error. - -** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature -now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook. -Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is -inconsistent with Emacs conventions. - -** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or -failure if the command produces no output. - -** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window -manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move -the mouse. - -** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to -mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related -function and variable names. - -** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for -reading specific files. This has higher priority than -file-coding-system-alist. - -** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to -t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by -converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to -the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed -according to the current fontset. - -** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed. - -The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of -that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and -nonascii-insert-offset. - -For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if -enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table -nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte -characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters. - -** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get -an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning. - -** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case -letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search. - -** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables -are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant -command keys. - -** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for -user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions. - -Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for -user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at -all variables that have documentation. - -** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer -shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way -that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable -minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap -it should show; the default is 20. - -Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode, -the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole -of your input. - -** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize -all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in -recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as -argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all -the customizable options which were changed since that version. -Newly added options are included as well. - -If you don't specify a particular version number argument, -then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options -for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded. - -This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the -Customize menu. - -** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out -the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command. - -** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of -buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were -invoked. - -** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces -that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment. -The default is 1. - -** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol -syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has -new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram -(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block -sensibly. - -** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger. - -** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil -value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make -two entries in one day for one file, and combine them. - -** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a -reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string -for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically -every night. - -** Desktop changes - -*** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set -the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom. - -*** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored -and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'. - -** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to -read and post multi-lingual articles. - -** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when -doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should -be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden -outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and -the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is -made invisible again. - -** Mail reading and sending changes - -*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of -the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any -changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently -toggle. - -*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file, -now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the -summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if -the message has no subject, is stored in the variable -rmail-default-body-file. - -*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no -longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they -handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use. - -*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string, -it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression -is evaluated to insert the signature. - -*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of -outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email -handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for -putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for -transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be -especially interested in trying feedmail. - -feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of -feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features -provided by feedmail are: - -**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and -stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users); -there is also a queue for draft messages - -**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and -be prompted for confirmation - -**** does smart filling of address headers - -**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be -the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this -can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get - -**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting -the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail, -/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new -function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp) - -** Dired changes - -*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked -files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T". - -*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily -run Dired on the directory name at point. - -*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of -files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match -for a specified regexp. - -** VC Changes - -*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control -conveniently. - -*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much -faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary -Dired. - -VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the -directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive -listing of all files at or below the given directory which are -currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown). - -You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil, -then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set -vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version -control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i' -on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired. - -All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which -is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type -`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on -the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes -`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked. - -The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to -toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all -VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command, -`* l', to mark all files currently locked. - -Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in -ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls -command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output. - -*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working -file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff -session to resolve them. - -Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to -resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that -contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS -uses as well). - -*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new -command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When -you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify -either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that -branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file. -If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively, -using ediff. - -** Changes in Font Lock - -*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face -are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical -use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are -unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for -compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face. - -** Frame name display changes - -*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current -frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and -raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or -when many frames are invisible or iconified. - -*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the -frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames -menu. - -** Comint (subshell) changes - -*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a -subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility -with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this. - -*** There are new commands in Comint mode. - -C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history; -that is, the line after the last line you got. -You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one. - -C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to -send the current line together with the following line, when you send -the following line. - -C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark, -which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the -previously sent input. - -C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input; -it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input -as the search string. - -*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll -automatically in compilation-mode windows. - -** C mode changes - -*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation, -and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is -assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro -definition. - -*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified -(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations. -Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu" -style is still the default however. - -*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style. - -*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which -are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer -them. They do not have key bindings by default. - -*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) -and M-e (c-end-of-statement). - -*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols -namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace. - -*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets -makes the style variables local to that buffer only. - -*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren, -c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change. - -*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You -should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire -package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new -variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default. - -** Changes to hippie-expand. - -*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If -non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for, -which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'. - -*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If -non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when -expanding dynamically. - -*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If -non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched. - -*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If -non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in -this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose -expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'. - -*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied. - -** Changes in BibTeX mode. - -*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable -bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during -automatic key generation. This replaces variable -bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches -against the first word in the title. - -*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just -capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations, -bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with -lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use -lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the -bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting. - -*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key -generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is -replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and -bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert. - -** Changes in vcursor.el. - -*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap -and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A -variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be -entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including -`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency -in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps. - -*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the -Editing group once the package is loaded. - -*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is -generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set -vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour. - -*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the -vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command. - -** Ispell changes. - -*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current -buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings -are identified by syntax tables in effect. - -*** Generic region skipping implemented. -A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will -and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user -defined. New applications and improvements made available by this -include: - - o URLs are automatically skipped - o EMail message checking is vastly improved. - -*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals. - -** Changes to RefTeX mode - -RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very -large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been -re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the -section `Optimizations' in the manual. - -*** New recursive parser. - -The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the -entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new -recursive parser scans the individual files. - -*** Parsing only part of a document. - -Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling -partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of -the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t. - - (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t) - -*** Storing parsing information in a file. - -This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use - - (setq reftex-save-parse-info t) - -*** Using multiple selection buffers - -If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens -for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting - - (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t) - -*** References to external documents. - -The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external -documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external -documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument -macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with -RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in -the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )'). -The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer. - -*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default. - -The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands, -and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution. - -Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes -the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly. - -*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers - -The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc* -buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'. - -*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes. - -The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of -contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map', -`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes -have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you -enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?' -at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out -more. - -*** Support for the varioref package - -The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref. - -*** New hooks - -Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references, -and citations are created. These hooks are -`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function', -`reftex-format-cite-function'. - -*** Citations outside LaTeX - -The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in -a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details. - -*** Short context is no longer fontified. - -The short context in the label menu no longer copies the -fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be -fontified, use - - (setq reftex-refontify-context t) - -** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument. -With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of -the file name within its directory; it only checks for other -directories that contain the same file name. - -Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file -Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary -file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to -Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that -have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer -names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other -directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present -directory. - -** New modes and packages - -*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode. -It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer -it, but some do not. - -*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL -code. - -*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the -current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move -around in a buffer. - -Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu. - -*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author -uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should -be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an -established system of notation similar to Chess. - -*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp -documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style -guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual. - -*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features -available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around -system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of -simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also -functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and -the like. - -*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to -identify recently changed parts of the buffer text. - -*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done -within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not -used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize -the user option `midnight-mode' to t. - -*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes. - - apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files - samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files - fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files - x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files - hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc) - mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files - javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files - vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files - java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files - java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files - mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files - - Platform-specific modes: - - prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files - pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files - alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files - inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files - ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files - reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files - bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts - rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files - rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts - -* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published - -** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, -use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. -That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode. -Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode. - -Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether -you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives -consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started. - -** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist, -and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can -specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for -searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions. - -** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and -multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte -character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language -environment. - -** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now -take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt -string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the -current input method for reading this one event. - -** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte -now control whether to output certain characters as -backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte -non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte -characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing -in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not). - -* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published - -** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version -of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3. - -** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were -in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1) -always increases point by 1. - -The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is -considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted. - -See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters. - -** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'. -Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's -default value changed. For example, - - (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed." - :type 'integer - :group 'foo - :version "20.3") - - (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group." - :version "20.3") - -If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the -default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It -is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a -`:version' in the top level group. - -This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command. - -** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name -starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray. - -However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that -symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that -support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables -to themselves. - -If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil, -this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any -values whatever. - -** There is a new debugger command, R. -It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result -in the buffer *Debugger-record*. - -** Frame-local variables. - -You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call -the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have -local bindings for that variable. - -These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a -frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling -modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the -parameter name. - -Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings. -Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is -active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding, -that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active. - -It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not -clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a -very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect -through a window-local binding would not be very robust. - -** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing -"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when -evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form -makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns. -See the documentation in sregex.el. - -** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which -is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to -parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended. -The contents of this field are not yet finalized. - -** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION. -If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'. - -** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from -known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can -define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead. - -** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE -when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as -it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the -history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default. - -The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to -return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters -empty input. - -** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use -for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to -`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names. -Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as -`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string. - -** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal, -echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments: -a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a -default password to use if the user enters nothing. - -** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to -specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a -function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the -place where a break is being considered. If the function returns -non-nil, then the line won't be broken there. - -** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE. -If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate -up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the -end of the window, even if this requires computation. - -** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME -which specifies which frame's buffer list to use. -If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list. - -** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer, -holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window -was directed to display this buffer. - -** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects -with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they -describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in -other words, if they would give the same results if passed to -set-window-configuration. - -** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two -window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer -positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of -windows and the choice of buffers to display. - -** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to -override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist -look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP). - -If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a -non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the -map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist. - -minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers, -and it is meant to be set by major modes. - -** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string -except that it discards all text properties from the result. - -** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument -USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as -floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100. - -** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory -to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined -in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems -it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables. - -** Menu changes - -*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the -keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now -better supported. - -The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls -a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when -you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you -can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature; -then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar. - -*** A new format for menu items is supported. - -In a keymap, a key binding that has the format - (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING) -defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that -starts with the symbol `menu-item'. - -The format is: - (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or - (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST) -where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item -string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list. -The supported properties include - -:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the - item is enabled. -:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the - item should appear in the menu. -:filter FILTER-FN - FILTER-FN is a function of one argument, - which will be REAL-BINDING. - It should return a binding to use instead. -:keys DESCRIPTION - DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard - binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with - `substitute-command-keys' before it is used. -:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE - KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent - keyboard binding. -:key-sequence nil - This means that the command normally has no - keyboard equivalent. -:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used). -:button (TYPE . SELECTED) - TYPE is :toggle or :radio. - SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its - value says whether this button is currently selected. - -Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu. -Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported. - -(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item. - -** New event types - -*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a -mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that -corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated, -which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is: - - (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA) - -where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the -same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number -indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A -negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards -the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated -forward, away from the user. - -As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows. - -*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of -files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged -and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of -filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically -loaded into Emacs. The format is: - - (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES) - -where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the -same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames -that were dragged and dropped. - -As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows. - -** Changes relating to multibyte characters. - -*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only; -any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way -to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte. - -*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You -can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character -that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape. - -*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were -in Emacs 19 and before. - -The function chars-in-string has been deleted. -The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'. - -*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current -buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or -unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte -representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation. - -This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed -as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents -viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as -one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation -will count as two characters using unibyte representation. - -This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which -representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer -(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are -consistent with the new representation. - -*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte -representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care -about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary; -however, it makes a difference when you compare strings. - -The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of -nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them -using the table nonascii-translation-table. - -*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte -representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the -representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings. - -The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation -loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically -is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer. - -*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string -which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte. - -*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string -which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte. - -*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare -portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte, -so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string. -You can specify whether to ignore case or not. - -*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that -it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal. - -*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now -convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the -buffer or string being searched. - -One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of -[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when -searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when -searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no -obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what -you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular -expression [^\0-\177] works for it. - -*** Structure of coding system changed. - -All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named -by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector -which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector -as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this -vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define -your own alias name of a coding system by the function -define-coding-system-alias. - -The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use -the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to -access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion, -pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode, -character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and -safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 -'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter -`iso-8859-1'. - -Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new. -The value of this property is a list of character sets which this -coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance: -(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1) - -Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can -also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they -are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode -the other character sets and read it back correctly. - -*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a -proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string. -This function requires a user interaction. - -*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and -find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by -select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding -systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want -a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of -select-safe-coding-system. - -*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as -decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set -last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding -was done. - -*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be -used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of -coding systems used by some specific language environment. - -*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always -return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII -characters are found, they now return a list of single element -`undecided' or its subsidiaries. - -*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and -coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different -coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is -converted. - -*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a -coding system for communicating with other X clients. - -*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid -character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire -character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words, -each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value -either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a -range of characters. - -*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a -Lisp object is a valid character code or not. - -*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character -in the current buffer at position POS. - -*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable -input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a -function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing -character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the -event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first -binding input-method-function to nil. - -The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input -method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as -input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by -the input method function are not passed to the input method function, -not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits. - -The input method function is not called when reading the second and -subsequent events of a key sequence. - -*** You can customize any language environment by using -set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook. - -The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo -customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For -instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language -environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up -exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding. + -* Changes in Emacs 20.1 - -** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user -options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look -at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a -tree structure. - -M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each -user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values. - -With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs -session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically -in your .emacs file.) - -** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window. -You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode. - -** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'. -This makes more space in the mode line for other information. - -** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted -immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it -kills the region. - -The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they -delete the character before point, as usual. - -** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted -on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature -by setting search-highlight to nil.) - -** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to -insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect, -the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked -onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the -history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the -past.) - -** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs. -This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode -in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode). -TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this -makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs. - -As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode, -and is an alias for it. - -If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph, -use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode. - -** Scrolling changes - -*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen -position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil. - -In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing -on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line -where it started. - -*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you -move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the -screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that -does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines. - -*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the -top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point -comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs -recenters the window. - -** International character set support (MULE) - -Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets, -including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese, -Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese, -Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These -features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as -MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs") - -Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard -coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte -character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide -variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back -into any of these coding systems when saving a file. - -Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used, -generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs -supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or -language, to make it possible to type them. - -The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII -character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377. - -The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain -to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods. - -You can disable multibyte character support as follows: - - (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil) - -Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte -characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second -argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are -already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte -characters for their work until they want to change. - -*** Input methods - -An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed -specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language -has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use -the same characters can share one input method). Some languages -support several input methods. - -The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into -another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods -work. - -A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of -characters into one letter. Many European input methods use -composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which -consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one -sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single -letter. - -The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed -by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way. -First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone -marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are -mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character". - -None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so -they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using -phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs -converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary. - -Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled -word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use; -typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if -the first guess is wrong. - -*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters) -turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer. - -If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each -byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as -they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for -the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2. - -However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to -use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set -includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can -translate automatically to and from either one. - -*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode. - -Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a -file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte -sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not -what you want. - -If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for -example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding -system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off -multibyte characters in that buffer. - -If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off -character conversion as well. - -*** Displaying international characters on X Windows. - -A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script. -Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports -requires using many fonts. - -Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a -collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes. - -A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by -the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you -have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as -you would use a font. - -If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it -specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot -display that character. It will display an empty box instead. - -The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters -(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII -characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height, -or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped, -and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil. - -*** Defining fontsets. - -Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still -chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset -with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource. - -Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value -of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is -`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the -standard fontset are created automatically. - -If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn' -argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the -FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name -with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short -name is `fontset-startup'. - -Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2... -The resource value should have this form: - FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]... -FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except: - * most fields should be just the wild card "*". - * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset" - * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset. -The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number -of times; each time specifies the font for one character set. -CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and -FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set. - -Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the -last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING. -You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name. - -For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a -font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the -following resource, - Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24 -the font for ASCII is generated as below: - -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1 -Here is the substitution rule: - Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset - defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has - the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce - sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-. - (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.) - -The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the -fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call -that function explicitly to create a fontset. - -With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just -like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset -name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the -fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle -fontsets. - -*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs -defaults for a particular choice of language. - -Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input -method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when -visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have -already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The -language environment may also specify a default choice of coding -system for new files that you create. - -It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use -set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the -whole Emacs session. - -For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET -chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this -with (set-language-environment "Latin-1"). - -*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) -specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This -specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving -the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the -coding systems that Emacs supports. - -*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument) -lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file. -This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name. -After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system -is used for *the immediately following command*. - -So if the immediately following command is a command to read or -write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file. - -If the immediately following command does not use the coding system, -then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect. - -For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET -visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1. - -*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*- -construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*- -to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also -specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end -of the file. - -*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies -the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character -code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are -translated into that character code. - -This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in -various countries to support the languages of those countries. - -By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all. - -*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies -the coding system for keyboard input. - -Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals -with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example, -some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it. - -By default, keyboard input is not translated at all. - -Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an -input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that -translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed -to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are -designed to work with terminals. - -*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system) -specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess. -This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess -has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify -translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command -in the corresponding buffer. - -By default, process input and output are not translated at all. - -*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system -to use for encoding file names before operating on them. -It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system. - -*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates -an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the -command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you -want to use. - -C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input -method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method. - -*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard -layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this -remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify -which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout. - -*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays -the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus -related information. - -*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called -HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various -scripts. - -*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays -information about the support for a particular language. -You specify the language as an argument. - -*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies -the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the -first dash. - -A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion -(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion -whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits -1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters: - - A alternativnyj (Russian) - B big5 (Chinese) - C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese) - C iso-2022-cn (Chinese) - D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages) - E euc-japan (Japanese) - I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) - J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese) - K euc-korea (Korean) - R koi8 (Russian) - Q tibetan - S shift_jis (Japanese) - T lao - T tis620 (Thai) - V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese) - i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) - k iso-2022-kr (Korean) - v viqr (Vietnamese) - z hz (Chinese) - -When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system), -two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file -coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for -keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output. - -*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code -conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil. - -When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically -into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with -rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing -Rmail files themselves. - -*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code -conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil. - -Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system -for sending mail: - -- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority. -- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it. -- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used, - if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment. -- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used. - -*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument -to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English, -Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional -translations. - -** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion -of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command -insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer -without any conversion. - -** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed. -You can now specify any number of octal digits. -RET terminates the digits and is discarded; -any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input. - -** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for -functions, variables and file names used in your programs. - -Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point. -Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point. - -Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major -mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used. - -** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command -complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name -in the buffer before point. - -With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of -symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that -you are using. - -With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables, -just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag). - -** File locking works with NFS now. - -The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME, -in the same directory as FILENAME. - -This means that collision detection between two different machines now -works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory -can become a bottleneck. - -The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection -does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot -create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the -file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are -rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is -so useful that the change is worth while. - -When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which -are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious -collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just -tell Emacs to go ahead anyway. - -** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses, -it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call -show-paren-mode. - -** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted -selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load -delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode. - -** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words -within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load -complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode. - -** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you, -it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also -set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values. - -** Changes in View mode. - -*** Several new commands are available in View mode. -Do H in view mode for a list of commands. - -*** There are two new commands for entering View mode: -view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame. - -*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their -previous state. - -*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil, -scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit. - -*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If -non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer, -not just the selected window. - -*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a -read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only -turns View mode on or off. - -*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls -how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil, -delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it. - -** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log, -now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version. - -** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version, -has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is -presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks -which version to compare with. - -** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden -blocks if a match is inside the block. - -The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match -is outside the block. By customizing the variable -isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily -shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search. - -By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind -of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code -blocks, all of them or none. - -** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the -current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for -confirmation first. - -** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name, -now changes the major mode according to that file name. -However, the mode will not be changed if -(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or -(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode, - not suitable for ordinary files, or -(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode. - -This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well. - -However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then -these commands do not change the major mode. - -** M-x occur changes. - -*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters, -it performs a case-sensitive search. - -*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur, -if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search -using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before. - -** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted -in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the -window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in -that window unless you select to another window which shows the same -buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window. - -** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates -after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings -appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents -come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information. - -** Each frame now independently records the order for recently -selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the -buffers recently selected in the selected frame. - -** Outline mode changes. - -*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el). - -*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode. - -** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if -you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer. -Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that -was already active. - -The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not -unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then -get confused by it. - -If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must -set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil. - -** Changes in dynamic abbrevs. - -*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case -conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first -character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion -including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim. - -The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has -mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always -copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps. - -*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search' -are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible -values. - -`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve -case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace). -`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore -case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search). - -** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a -certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they -can be. The default value is 30. - -** Changes in Mail mode. - -*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly. -Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail -composition mechanism you have selected with the variable -`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is -`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old -behavior. - -C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs -compose-mail-other-frame. - -*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use -the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are -replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the -buffer that shows the original message. - -*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message, -with separator lines around the contents. - -*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases -in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias -definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not -need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail. - -*** New features in the mail-complete command. - -**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name, -for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style -controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all. -Its values are like those of mail-from-style. - -**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command -to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in -/etc/passwd. - -**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read -to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used: -/etc/passwd. - -** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of -special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a -directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a -reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'. - -Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as -when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise -be taken to be magic. - -** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select -files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is -available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep. - -M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that. -(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.) - -** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names -suggest they are probably not needed in the long run. - -In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands. - -new key dired.el binding old key -------- ---------------- ------- - * c dired-change-marks c - * m dired-mark m - * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted) - * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted) - * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted) - * u dired-unmark u - * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL - * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-? - * ! dired-unmark-all-marks - * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m - * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-} - * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{ - -** Rmail changes. - -*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it -saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer -chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing -each time you run it. - -*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls -whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes. - -*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete -messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument -means to move in the opposite direction. - -*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets -you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned. - -*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes -just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers. -It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you -can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used -for output. - -** Gnus changes. - -*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion. - -*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into -Gnus. - -*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like -`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection. - -*** Article washing status can be displayed in the -article mode line. - -*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files. - -*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID. - -(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t) - -*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files -are to be considered home score and adapt files. See -`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'. - -*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics. - -*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable. - -*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions. -See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'. - -*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like. -Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be -used to pick articles. - -*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to -another have been added. - - `M-x gnus-change-server' - -*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when -generating lines in buffers. - -*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with -`M-C-_'. - -*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'. - -*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis: - - (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word)) - -*** Scores can be decayed. - - (setq gnus-decay-scores t) - -*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The -Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first. - -*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from -the native server. - - `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups' - -*** A new command for reading collections of documents -(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'. - -*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped. - -*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post -even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting. - -*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines -(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added. - - Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such - a group. - -*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard -sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently. - - See the commands under the `T S' submap. - -*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently. - - See the commands under the `G P' submap. - -*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups. - - Use the `Y c' command. - -*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order. - -*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated. - - `M-x nnmail-split-history' - -*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk -from incoming mail before saving the mail. - - See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'. - -*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files. - -*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute -the following code, for instance, in your .emacs. - - (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize) - -Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically -and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime -from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this -hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling -this issue.) - -Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems -automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a -particular news group. This can be done by: - - (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM) - -Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree -of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under -"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding -system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both -for reading and posting). - -CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form - (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM) -Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the -newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages -there. - -Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by -default. Here are some of these default settings: - - (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7) - (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312) - (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312) - (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5) - (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr)) - -When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored; -the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual. - -** CC mode changes. - -*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java) -code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global -values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do -this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file. -Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is -loaded. - -If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, -Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode -style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers -share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set -c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you -must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded. - -*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name -of the current buffer. - -*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because -it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles -of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use. - -*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C -style that the Python developers like. - -*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace. -This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line, -just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line. - -** VC Changes [new] - -** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot -name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current -directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked). - -This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common -master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other -developers. - -You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q -RET in a buffer visiting that file. - -*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by -other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a -writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then -calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it. - -*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for -version numbers, based on the current state of the file. - -** Calendar changes. - -A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses -of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this -for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years. - -** ps-print changes - -There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout. - -*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns - -The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print -formats for; it should contain one of the symbols: -`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid' -`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5' -It defaults to `letter'. -If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'. - -The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation -of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode, -non-nil means "landscape" mode. - -The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer. -It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode. -It defaults to 1. - -*** Horizontal layout - -The horizontal layout is determined by the variables -`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'. -All are measured in points. - -*** Vertical layout - -The vertical layout is determined by the variables -`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'. -All are measured in points. - -*** Headers - -If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then -`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the -margin above the text. - -If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy -framing box is printed around the header. - -The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines', -`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'. - -The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad', -`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and -`ps-header-font-size'. - -*** Font managing - -The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be -used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist -`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding -elements to this alist. - -The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font -for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points. - -** hideshow changes. - -*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for -C++, ; for lisp). - -*** Support for java-mode added. - -*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments -in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set. - -*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at -the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your -way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'. - -*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more -robust and a lot faster. - -*** A block beginning can span multiple lines. - -*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow -to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the -documentation for more details. - -** Changes in Enriched mode. - -*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is -filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent -of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in -use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled -the next time unless the fill-column is different. - -*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs -distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines -as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked -as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text. - -** Font Lock mode - -*** Custom support - -The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and -font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the -faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom -group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in -your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should -consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize. - -You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances. - -*** Maximum decoration - -Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by -default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level -of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration -supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil -to get the old behavior. - -*** New support - -Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes. - -Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes -support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode. - -*** Configurable support - -Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for -additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types, -c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it, -java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a -list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value -of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the -convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification. - -Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever -way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make -it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types. - -*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support - -You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own -highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs, -for any mode. - -For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put: - - (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\ tex --> reftex.el - -** Changes in BibTeX mode. - -*** Info documentation is now available. - -*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused -both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode. - -*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to -bibtex-user-optional-fields. - -*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote -(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead). - -*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete -entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by -appropriate functions. - -*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of -entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h. - -*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has -been cleaned. - -*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables -bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter. - -*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries -shall be delimited. - -*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of -bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and -bibtex-include-OPTkey for details. - -*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor -field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are -prefixed with `ALT'. - -*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable -bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many -formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable -documentation). - -*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See -documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions -for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too. - -*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if -comma should be inserted at end of last field. - -*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if -alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal -signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation). - -*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries. - -*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer. - -*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database -from alien sources. - -*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string) -to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in -crossref entries. - -*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or -region. - -*** Added support for imenu. - -*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead -of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a -`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g. -`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors. - -*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files -from `bibtex-string-files' are searched. - -** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative. - -** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow. - -** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the -functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem. -Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory -as an argument. - -When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read -and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed). - -** browse-url changes - -*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm), -Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window -(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic -non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated -customization variables. - -*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'. - -*** URLs marked up with (RFC1738) work if broken across -lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps -(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'. - -** Changes in Ediff - -*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel -pops up the Info file for this command. - -*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether -the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when -merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different -directories). - -*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare -and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of -files in the same directory. - -*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively. -The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug -related to the GNU format has now been fixed.) - -** Changes in Viper - -*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip -*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper- - instead of vip-. -*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states. -*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next -Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before. -*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states. -*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state. -*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor -color when Viper is in insert state. -*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window, -Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable -viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior. - -** Etags changes. - -*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by -default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average. -Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag -variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does -not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on. - -*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags. - -*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements" -constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java. - -*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are -recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax). -In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash. - -*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and -C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags -recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories, -methods and protocols. - -*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension -.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in -column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a -paragraph name. - -*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of -an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression -at least M times and as many as N times. - -** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert -in files has changed slightly. - -With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string, -time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it. -This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility -with old time-stamp-format values. - -In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign -(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character. -This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility -reasons. - -In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their -natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a -fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon -(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical -time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are -specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d". - -Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the -case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit -truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway. - -The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are -being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the -future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being -recommended now will continue to work then. - -See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for -details. - -** There are some additional major modes: - -dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files. -m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input. -meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files. - -** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you -copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell -into Emacs. - -** New Lisp packages include: - -*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops. - -*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might -be used for adding some indecent words to your email. - -*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor. - -*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes -in shell buffers. - -*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code. -See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer' -and `elint-defun'. - -*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is -meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary -ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within -strings or comments. - -These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an -abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev, -you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these -insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text -at these points. - -*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you -can visit them by short forms of their names. - -*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded -Emacs Lisp function at point. - -*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture. - -*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like -switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way. - -*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning. - -*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program. - -*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input. - -*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations -from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed. - -*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature. -You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically -inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its -original place after inserting the copy. - -*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2 -on the buffer. - -You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the -velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll -(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed. - -Enable mouse-drag with: - (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw) --or- - (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag) - -*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have -mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail. - -*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave. -It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess. - -*** ogonek - -The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of -Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various -platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and -TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to -ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to -prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for -instance) and vice versa. - -To use this package load it using - M-x load-library [enter] ogonek -Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of - M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish - M-x ogonek-how -- in English -The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the -ways of customization in `.emacs'. - -*** Interface to ph. - -Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi) - -The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory -services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to -these servers. - -*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email. - -*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature. -You can move the virtual cursor with special commands -while the real cursor does not move. - -*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up -for visiting your favorite web sites. - -*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations, -so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used. - -** movemail change - -Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP -mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer -supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the -user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server. - -This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before. - -* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows. - -** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files. - -Emacs handles three different conventions for representing -end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the -Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific -file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special -file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention. - -To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use -C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different -coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly -specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with -LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to -save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos. - -* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1 - -** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in -Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And -vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in -Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20. - -** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed -to start with w32- instead of win32-. - -In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We -don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it -"win". - -** Basic Lisp changes - -*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically -evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant. - -*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now -be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program -or by the user. - -The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed. - -*** There are new macros `when' and `unless' - -(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...)) -(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...) - -*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their -usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of -its argument. - -*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties. - -*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function. - -*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors. - -*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an -error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives -include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the -`format' function. - -*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el -or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file -whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc. - -*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain -either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on -adding one of these suffixes. - -*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE -which specifies the base to use when converting an integer. -If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used. - -We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers, -because that would be much more work and does not seem useful. - -*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings. - -*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally. -You must load the `cl' library to define it. - -*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression -conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this: - - (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...) - -BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use. -BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer. - -*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the -choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or -restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer' -works using `save-current-buffer'. - -*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and -write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value -of the last form. - -*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer, -which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the -last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string) -as the last form. - -*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain -characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the -matches. - -For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose"). - -*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions -with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string. -Then it returns that string. - -For example, if the current buffer name is `foo', - -(with-output-to-string - (princ "The buffer is ") - (princ (buffer-name))) - -returns "The buffer is foo". - -** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters -is non-nil. - -These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the -buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte -characters that occupy several buffer positions each. - -*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in -a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four). - -Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements; -character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes. -Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer -position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole -characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to - (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))). - -ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always. -Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent -non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte -characters". - -The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128 -through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called -"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the -range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the -leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is. - -*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore -(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a -multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a -character, which may be more than one buffer position. - -This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is -always one buffer position, need to be changed. - -However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position. - -*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters, -because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters -have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However, -the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters, -guaranteed. - -*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is -between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a -character). - -When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS: - - 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range, - 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form, - 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form, - 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form, - 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character. - -*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses. - -*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function -`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be -more than the number of characters. - -You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing -it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape, -\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which -is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to -follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and -newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape. - -*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters -and returns a string containing those characters. - -*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string. -(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX -counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a -character, sref signals an error. - -*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters -in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the -string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes). - -*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters -in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the -region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes). - -*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of -the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string -to a vector of the characters in it. - -*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents -of a string. You call it as follows: - - (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ) - -This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in -STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string. -This function really does alter the contents of STRING. -Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string, -it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length. - -*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR, -if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window. - -*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING, -if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window. - -*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary, -to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does -not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string -which contains all or just part of the existing string.) - -(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING) - -This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN. - -The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column. -If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string -are not included in the resulting value. - -The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added -at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly -WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING -is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING. - -If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean -place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one -character extends across that column), then the padding character -PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result -string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at -column START-COLUMN. - -*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called, -the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not -necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the -difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the -changed text, before the change. - -*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character -sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is -one character set for each script, not for each language. - -**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name. - -**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names. - -**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character -set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.) - -**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the -name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values -which identify the character within that character set. - -**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent -byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the -opposite of split-char. - -**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets -of all the characters between BEG and END. - -**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets -of all the characters in a string. - -*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems -and specifying coding systems. - -**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding -system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list -of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants. -(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix -and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well -as what to do about code conversion.) - -**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system -name. It returns t if so, nil if not. - -**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use -for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist, -except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name. - -Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines -which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp -to match against a file name. - -VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or -a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both -decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent -to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding -systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr -specifies the coding system for encoding. - -If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system -or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above. - -**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies -the coding system to use for network sockets. - -Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines -which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be -either a port number or a regular expression matching some network -service names. - -VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or -a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both -decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent -to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding -systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr -specifies the coding system for encoding. - -If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system -or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above. - -**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use -for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist, -except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to -start the subprocess. - -**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding -systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output, -when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell -(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output -to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it. - -**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the -coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous -subprocess. - -It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection, -but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you -start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or -connection permanently or until overridden. - -The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over -file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and -network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a -coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil. -It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding -system for one operation at a time. - -**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from -files, subprocesses or network connections. - -**** The function process-coding-system tells you what -coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using. -The value is a cons cell, - (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM) -where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from -the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding -input to the subprocess. - -**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to -change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess. - -** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many -customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility, -you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom. - -You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option -variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of -information (usually): the "type" which says what values are -legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for -customization. - -Thus, instead of writing - - (defvar foo-blurgoze nil - "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.") - -you would now write this: - - (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil - "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely." - :type 'boolean - :group foo) - -The type `boolean' means that this variable has only -two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values -describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom -for a description of them. - -The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option -should belong to. You define a new group like this: - - (defgroup ispell nil - "Spell checking using Ispell." - :group 'processes) - -The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root -group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself, -but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond -to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come -second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages. - -Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple -package should have just one group; a more complex package should -have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a -package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword" -first-level subgroups. - -** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers. - -This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a -separate manual that accompanies Emacs. - -** easy-mmode - -The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make -developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code -only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles, -predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro -`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also -`easy-mmode-define-keymap'. - -** Text property changes - -*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a -text property. - -*** The new functions next-char-property-change and -previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a -place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The -functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the -starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan. - -If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If -LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part -of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the -position of the beginning or end of the buffer. - -*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property -value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This -is an alternative to using the keymap itself. - -** Changes in invisibility features - -*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are -hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match -is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay -should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that -would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should -make the overlay visible. - -During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the -invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are -needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary -which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is -the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and -t when it should hide it. - -*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec - -Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the -invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol) -and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol. -Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to -manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'. -Here is an example of how to do this: - - ;; If we want to display an ellipsis: - (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t)) - ;; If you don't want ellipsis: - (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol) - - ... - (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol) - - ... - ;; When done with the overlays: - (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t)) - ;; Or respectively: - (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol) - -** Changes in syntax parsing. - -*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as -`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now -obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable -`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil. - -If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior -is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always -used to determine the syntax of the character at the position. - -When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a -character in the buffer is calculated thus: - - a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character - is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type; - - Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid - syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e., - a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR). - - b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property - is a syntax table, this syntax table is used - (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to - determine the syntax type of the character. - - c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table - of the current buffer. - -*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the -value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as -for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions. - -*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14 -and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended -only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A -character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by -another character with the same code (unless quoted). - -These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table' -text property. - -*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth -arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start -of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string. - -*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp' -(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth -element: the character address of the start of last comment or string; -nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the -string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code. - -*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete -syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports -`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'. - -** Changes in face features - -*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even -if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces. - -*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string -of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one). - -*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold. -set-face-bold-p sets that flag. - -*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic. -set-face-italic-p sets that flag. - -*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text -by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME) -and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in -the `face' property (either the character's text property or an -overlay property). - -This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use -arbitrary colors in a Lisp package. - -** Changes in file-handling functions - -*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant -directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words, -they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion -is now done only in substitute-in-file-name. - -This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name -begins with ~. - -*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file, -it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error. - -*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if -the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers. - -*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file, -as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil. - -*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses -character code conversion as well as other things. - -Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names -(formerly it did not). - -*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR -environment variable to decide which directory to put them in. - -*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps -instead of constant strings. - -*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used -to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of -any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through. - -substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially, -in the same way as before. - -*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now. -The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings -which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion. - -*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an -error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing -else, and returns nil. - -*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified -directory cannot be listed. - -** Changes in minibuffer input - -*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string -read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an -additional argument which specifies the default value. If this -argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two -ways: - - It is returned if the user enters empty input. - It is available through the history command M-n. - -*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer, -read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional -argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the -minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of -enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer. - -In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an -argument in this way. - -*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties -from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable -minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil. - -** Echo area features - -*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook -echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the -minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active -after the echo area is cleared. - -*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed -in the echo area, or nil if there is none. - -** Keyboard input features - -*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was -set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started. - -*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events -received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated -by keyboard macros. - -** Frame-related changes - -*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before -creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal -hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg. - -*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time -the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration -has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run. - -*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently -selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the -value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed -in the selected frame. - -*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars -is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies -which side of the window to put the scroll bars on. - -** X Windows features - -*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding -x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of -x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs. - -*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work. -The menu displays the current status of the box or button. - -*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument -MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return. -A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster. - -If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern, -it is good to supply 1 for this argument. - -** Subprocess features - -*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter -functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this -automatically. - -*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command -and returns the output from the command as a string. - -*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process, -and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection. - -** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook -does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before. - -** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes -at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it -goes after the other menu items. - -** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area -of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls -around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks -are in use. - -The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a -series of several changes--if that seems safe. - -Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and -after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls -form. - -** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION -is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense, -but its hook is still run. - -** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it) -for errors that are handled by condition-case. - -If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called -regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is -useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case. - -This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that -are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process -filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't -warned. - -** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own -way for Emacs to "ring the bell". - -** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at -integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for -functions like display-time. - -** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file -name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before. - -** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that -can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode -is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit. - -** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code -if there is an error in compilation. - -** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and -switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional -argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil, -they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list. - -** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty, -Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing -the *scratch* buffer. - -** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string. -The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used -where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important, -e.g., in Font Lock mode. - -** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer, -and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window. -It starts at 0 when the buffer is created. - -** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message -using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the -variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window -and compose-mail-other-frame. - -** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which -can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The -full name of the specified user will be returned. - -** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort -of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding -where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found -in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q -option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization -files at all. - -** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width -and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field -width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start -the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros. - -For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the -minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad -with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that -is how %S normally pads to two positions. - -** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url. - -** imenu.el changes. - -You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an -item from menu created by imenu. - -An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the -#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we -select one of those items. - -* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes. - -* Changes in Emacs 19.33. - -** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major -mode should do that--it is the user's choice.) - -** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to -use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on. -Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works. - -* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32 - -** C-x f with no argument now signals an error. -To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f. - -** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case -conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it -matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the -expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional -word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is -all caps. - -** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame -at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame. - -When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2 -does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same -as in previous Emacs versions. - -** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a -non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any -time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple -frames. - -** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value -if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu. -This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the -Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by -accident. - -** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined -keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region. -It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that -line and then executing the macro. - -This command is not new, but was never documented before. - -** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant -(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter -characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting -characters. - -** Font Lock mode - -*** Font Lock support modes - -Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see -below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the -hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode -to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when -Font Lock mode is enabled. - -For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put: - - (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode) - -in your ~/.emacs. - -*** lazy-lock - -The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur -only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer -becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and -Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events -occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the -buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until -Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time. - -To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs: - - (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode) - -To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'. - -** Changes in BibTeX mode. - -*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or -paren and key. - -*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now -supported. - -** Gnus changes. - -Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new -commands and variables have been added. There should be no -significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the -previously released version, except in the message composition area. - -Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes -between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive. - -*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization -variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now -obsolete. - -*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where -missing articles are represented by empty nodes. - - (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some) - -*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server. - - To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil) - -*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are -referred. - -*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions: - - (setq gnus-use-grouplens t) - -*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed. - - (setq gnus-use-trees t) - -*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary -buffers. - - (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode) - -*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode: - - `M-x gnus-binary-mode' - -*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy. - - (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode) - -*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail. - - Use the `S D r' and `S D b'. - -*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency -is possible. - - (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group) - -*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on -groups of groups. - -*** Caching is possible in virtual groups. - -*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news -batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else. - -*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets. - -*** The Gnus cache is much faster. - -*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria. - - For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank) - -*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and -expiration times. - -*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used. - -*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on -process marked articles on the `M P' submap. - -*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available -articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been -bound to keys on the `/' submap. - -*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving -articles with the `*' command. - -*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles. - -*** Article headers can be buttonized. - - (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head) - -*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID. - -*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the -`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable. - -*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article -buffer. - -*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'. - -*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process. - -*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam. - - (setq gnus-use-nocem t) - -*** Groups can be made permanently visible. - - (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:") - -*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier. - -*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header. - -*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header. - - (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function - 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references) - -*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid -refetching. - - (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50) - -*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate -buffer to allow easier treatment. - -*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'. - -*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving. - - (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t) - -*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching -articles. - - (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view) - -*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text. - -*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much -cited text to hide is now customizable. - - (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2) - -*** Boring headers can be hidden. - - (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers) - -*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar. - -*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added. - -The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features -in greater detail. - -* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32 - -** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional -second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not -asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already -exists. - -** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors, -as well as lists. - -** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap -of a given keymap. - -** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a -given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a -keymap or nil. - -** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really -an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real" -name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil -menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for -equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the -alias. - -* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31 - -** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States. - -Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act. -This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law -was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans -far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any -pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited. - -For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what -you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site -`http://www.vtw.org/'. - -** A note about C mode indentation customization. - -The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style -do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode. -It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are -much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs -chapter of the manual for details. - -However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old -customization variables take effect. - -** Marking with the mouse. - -When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains -highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are -using M-x transient-mark-mode. - -** Improved Windows NT/95 support. - -*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95. - -*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used -to work on NT only and not on 95.) - -*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems -in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as -you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS -application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS -applications, these problems are significant. - -If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is -likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy. -However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess -will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any -other DOS application as a subprocess. - -Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess. -You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess. - -If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate -subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably -have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy. -Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two -separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing -Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes. - -** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode. - -This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in -which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the -minibuffer contains. - -** `title' frame parameter and resource. - -The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else. -It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources. -It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise -affects just the displayed title of the frame. - -The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do: -it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources, -and also serves as the default for the displayed title -when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil. - -** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new -enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer). - -** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the -F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual -Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif. - -If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif -menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add -something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds -the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12: - - Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : ShiftF12 - -** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases -to replace the characters it "deletes". - -** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message. - -** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts -a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it, -select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command. -It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message -immediately after the selected one. - -This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly -made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs. - -** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory. - -Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home -directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover. -If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If -Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x -recover-session. - -You can turn off the writing of these files by setting -auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session -will not work. - -Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on -normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off -this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this -bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so -now that the bug is fixed. - -** Changes to Version Control (VC) - -There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do -when you visit a link to a file that is under version control. -Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system, -which is dangerous and probably not what you want. - -If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file, -telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default), -VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil, -the link is visited and a warning displayed. - -** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language. -Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which -is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters). - -There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and -Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they -enable only the accent characters needed for particular language. -The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language, -remain normal. - -** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various -header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...). - -Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups -known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header -offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since -Followup-To usually just holds one of those. - -Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list -of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides -a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user -name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the -documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and -`mail-directory-stream'.) - -** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured) -skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named -characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible -with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s. - -Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and -- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be -wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results). - -The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or -less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for -headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit / -Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable. -Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to -fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due -to a limitation in font-lock). - -External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving. - -** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current -buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all -buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in -this example: - - (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook - '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index"))) - -** Changes in BibTeX mode. - -*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores. - -*** Font Lock mode is now supported. - -*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive. - -*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new -entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting -will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or -isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c -(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it. -The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil. - -*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q -does the same job. - -*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author = -"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported. - -*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help -text. - -** Font Lock mode - -*** Global Font Lock mode - -Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the -new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable -font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically -turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned -on globally where the buffer mode supports it. - -For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put: - - (global-font-lock-mode t) - -in your ~/.emacs. - -*** Local Refontification - -In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only. -However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines, -those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new -command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block). - -In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function. -(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the -current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines -above and below point. - -With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point. - -** Follow mode - -Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same -buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two -side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if -they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window, -split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x -follow-mode. - -M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled. - -To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the -command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split. - -** hide-show changes. - -The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed -to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for -normal hooks. - -** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands. -The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q. - -** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are -recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are -those that begin a function, record, or macro. - -** MSDOS Changes - -*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP. -Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works. - -*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten -and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs. - -*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak. - -*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously -pressing both mouse buttons. - -*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had -restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones -are: - -**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package) -now works. - -**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode). - -**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new -implementation of Emacs timers, see below). - -**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards. - -**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms. - -**** `M-x recover-session' works. - -**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors. - -**** The `TPU-EDT' package works. - -* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31. - -** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95 -tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a -remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in -this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this -behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it. - -** Change in system-type and system-configuration values. - -The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux', -not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type' -need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also -be different. - -It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather -than `system-type'. - -See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this. - -** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process -now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them. - -** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers -that pointed into or next to the deleted text. - -** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and -no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more -reliably and can be used for shorter time delays. - -The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer -to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks -like this: - - (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...) - -SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens. -It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer -becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS. - -REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in -seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0 -means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once. - -*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give -up if too much time passes. - - (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...) - -This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds. -If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value -of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last -form in BODY. - -*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for -a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A -call looks like this: - - (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...) - -SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer -runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the -timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments -ARGS. - -Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse -command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse -command. - -REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each -time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer -does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after -each time Emacs becomes idle. - -If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is -idle for SECS seconds. - -*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at -all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your -programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers -instead. - -*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if -there is no answer within a certain time. - - (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE) - -asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers -within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave. -Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE. - -** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven -arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual -meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the -arguments in between are ignored. - -This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as -the list of arguments for `encode-time'. - -** The default value of load-path now includes the directory -/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to -/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for -site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs -version. - -It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs -version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating -for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that -has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself -and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the -problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve. - -** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or -.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating -systems with limited file name syntax. - -Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function -convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form -for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file -completions.el: - -(defvar save-completions-file-name - (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions") - "*The filename to save completions to.") - -This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that -depends on the operating system, because the definition of -convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On -Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On -MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system. - -** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument -rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the -minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.) - -** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process -marker from its buffer position. - -** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether -Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection. -The default is nil, meaning there are no messages. - -** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors -that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error -condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any -of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions -matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger, -regardless of the value of debug-on-error. - -This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting -errors that happen often during editing. - -** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum -into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case -puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened. - -** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window -now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window. - -** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying -a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer -name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames -to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc., -and not get-buffer-window. - -** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions, -calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer -being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them. - -If you use this feature, you should set the variable -buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a -property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a -non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions -are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil -property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called -over and over for the same text. - -** Changes in lisp-mnt.el - -*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written -in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command: - -;; @(#) HEADER: text -;; $HEADER: text $ - -in addition to the normal - -;; HEADER: text - -*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify -checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and -lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information. - -* For older news, see the file ONEWS. +* For older news, see the file NEWS.1. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright information: diff -r cbfd75137078 -r 550344dcef43 etc/NEWS.1 --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/etc/NEWS.1 Mon Aug 14 16:30:59 2000 +0000 @@ -0,0 +1,5006 @@ +GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000 +Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. +See the end for copying conditions. + +Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org. +For older news, see the file ONEWS. + +^L +* Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes + +** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard +input. + +** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos. + +** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages. + +** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not +only for character input, but also in incremental search. The +exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets +(e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence +(e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search. + +** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has +been added. + +^L +* Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change + +** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added. + +^L +* Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes. + +** Not new, but not mentioned before: +M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark. + +* Changes in Emacs 20.4 + +** Init file may be called .emacs.el. + +You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'. +Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name +`.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way. + +If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file +is the one that is used. + +** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return +the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous). +Also, you can specify a place to put the error output, +separate from the command's regular output. +Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer +says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name. +In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies +the buffer name. + +When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error +output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate +it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not +cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there. + +** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in +the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom, +is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers +created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs. + +** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For +example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names +match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the +quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name. + +** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches +now have the same feature as occur and query-replace: +if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then +they never ignore case. + +** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned +under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually +applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents +of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or +just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs +convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a +part of the general feature of coding system conversion. + +If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to +the same format that was used in the file before. + +You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable +`inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group. + +** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been +renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling. +This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected. + +** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed. +The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a +buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for +your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format +is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual +end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for +Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac). + +The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos, +eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings, +control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line +format. You can now customize these variables. + +** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a +filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a +filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of +enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil. + +** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode +in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given +windows just big enough to hold the whole contents. + +** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function +dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file +doesn't have any effect. + +** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process, +not one per buffer. + +** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to +use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line: + (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup) + +** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el. +To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the +`auto-show-mode' command. + +** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to +avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous +versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font +choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change +occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then. + +** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's +cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel. + +** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the +character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this +feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil. + +** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at +the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an +interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode +and variable specification, as well as on the first line. + +** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters. + +The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system +that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and +one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that +codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character +set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc. + +Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates +from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported. + +IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have +equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to +a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to +`?' on other systems. + +IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this +feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on +Unix. + +Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the +current codepage when it starts. + +** Mail changes + +*** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if +`mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime', +appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if +non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other +MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three +headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is +latin-1: + + MIME-version: 1.0 + Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 + Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit + +*** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the +default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than +default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than +sendmail-coding-system and the local value of +buffer-file-coding-system. + +You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set +sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing +mail. + +*** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters, +if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them, +Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a +list of possible coding systems. + +** CC Mode changes + +*** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major +modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no +longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's +docstring for details. + +*** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic +symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is +found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a +prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied +lineup functions use this feature currently. + +*** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and +"finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java. + +*** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for +"catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines. + +*** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately +from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new +symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on +c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for +anonymous classes. + +*** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific +syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont + +*** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol +inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike +support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup +function c-lineup-inexpr-block. + +*** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists +(i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open +brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's. +c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces +(brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified). + +*** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default. + +*** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line. + +*** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren) +for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed. + +*** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero. + +*** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation +associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace. +This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some +circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the +class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that). + +** Gnus changes. + +*** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been +added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the +Gnus manual for the full story. + +*** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than +before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft +group, which is created automatically. + +*** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header +values. + +*** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's. + +*** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message +outside the region: `C-c C-v'. + +*** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with +`C-u C-c C-c'. + +*** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization. + +*** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit +re-highlighting of the article buffer. + +*** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'. + +*** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic +Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details. + +*** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix +`a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file. + +*** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater +control over simplification. + +*** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread. + +*** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the +limit. + +*** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text. + +*** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'. + +*** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed. +If you used this function in your initialization files, you must +rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead. + +*** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix +`a' forces normal posting method. + +*** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text +-- `W d'. + +*** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands' +to a non-nil value. + +*** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling +where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers. + +*** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer +has been added. + +*** A history of where mails have been split is available. + +*** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'. + +*** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting +`gnus-score-thread-simplify'. + +*** A new function for citing in Message has been added -- +`message-cite-original-without-signature'. + +*** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command. + +*** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has +been added. + +*** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the +`gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable. + +*** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually +updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command. + +*** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend. + +*** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb. + +*** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated. + +** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode + +*** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give +options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in +nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "". + +*** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a +TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some +of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run +TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you +can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET. + +*** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'. +All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available +but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use +the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell. + +*** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check +the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur* +buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular +mismatch. + +** Changes to RefTeX mode + +*** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and +file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys. + +*** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now +lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1 +characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be +removed from the label. + +*** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use +a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'. + +*** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the +customization group `reftex-finding-files'. + +*** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to +`reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular +expressions. + +*** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers. + +** New/deleted modes and packages + +*** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and +SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'. + +*** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for +editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with +SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'. + +*** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer +changes with a special face. + +*** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and +this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use +Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el. + +* MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4 + +** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better. +This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets, +conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters, +and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details, +check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual. + +The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds +Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim +distribution when the config.bat script is run. + +** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on +MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it +controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written +directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of +Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing +on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a +string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external +program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of +printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.) + +** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript +output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs +available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard +input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a +temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external +program. + +An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT, +and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these +programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax +automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name +as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is +ignored, as both programs have no useful switches. + +** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has +a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on +MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but +was not documented clearly before. + +** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals. +This includes Tetris and Snake. + +* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4 + +** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position +return the position of the beginning or end of the current line. +They both accept an optional argument, which has the same +meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line. + +** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument +WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing, +and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern. + +** Changes in the file-attributes function. + +*** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float. +It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise. + +*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if +the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two +integers. + +** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of +files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same +arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that +file names and attributes are returned. + +** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for +sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It +accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes. +It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and +returns the result. + +** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern +to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern. + +** New functions for base64 conversion: + +The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer +into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region +performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported +optionally. + +Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar +job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string. + +** +The new function process-running-child-p +will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its +terminal to its own child process. + +** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature: +when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal +to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell +itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent. + +** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can +be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists. + +** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'. +:included is an alias for :visible. + +easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by +easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used +to move or copy menu entries. + +** Multibyte editing changes + +*** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is +an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to +make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also +work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and +char-bytes in a loop typically as below: + (setq char (sref str idx) + idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx))) +The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete. + +If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character +(say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code: + (charset-bytes (char-charset ch)) + +*** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the +region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or +deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error: + + Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted + +This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character +across the boundary. + +*** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include +`unknown' in the returned list in the following cases: + o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and + contains 8-bit characters. + o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and + contains invalid characters. + +*** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove +text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly +preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing +text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct +way. + +*** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems. +If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of +end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by +prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line. + +*** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly +compose Thai characters in a string. + +** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third +argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name +for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as +menus should always use the third argument. + +** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char, +read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second +arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current +input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil. + +** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents +of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in +programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing +inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases. + +** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in +the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it +returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous +echo area contents. + + (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY) + +** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument +NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the +requested feature cannot be loaded. + +** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the +foreground color, background color or stipple pattern +means to clear out that attribute. + +** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame +gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame. + +** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now +read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode +unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the +end of with-output-to-temp-buffer. + +** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on +the gap of the current buffer. + +** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way +to convert between character positions and byte positions in the +current buffer. + +** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to +facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs. +These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check +it back in after any modifications have been made. + +* Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3 + +** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of +the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and +/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those +directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and +subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path. + +Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose +names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded. +Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory +which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use +these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched. + +Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it +starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each +time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower. + +This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs +Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically +to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the +subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a +`.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired +results. + +** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from +GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers +that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in +fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago. + +* Changes in Emacs 20.3 + +** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command +including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward, +it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can +perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition. + +** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a +specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired +region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing +further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo +command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made +within the region you originally specified, until either all of them +are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that +region. + +In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests +selective undo. + +** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are +unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte +buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same +effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs +Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode. + +The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files, +though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use +-*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to +load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started. + +** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and +no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the +enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is +something that most users not do. + +** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste +operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X. +The coding system can make a difference for communication with other +applications. + +C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and +pasting operations. + +** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by +setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks +like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different +printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting +`ps-printer-name'. + +** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a +minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember +any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it +except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting +incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor +hits a new word. + +Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for +Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not +to be confused by TeX commands. + +You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something +correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by +clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu +of various alternative replacements and actions. + +Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces +the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several +corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in +alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if +flyspell-sort-corrections is nil. + +Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if +flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil. + +** Changes in input method usage. + +Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among +the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p +respectively. + +You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion. + +If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one +of the alternatives with Mouse-2. + +The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so +that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'. + + If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given. + + If the value is t, extra guidance is always given. + + If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only + when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py. + + If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is + given in the following case: + o When you are using a complex input method. + o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer. + +If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting +input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice, +and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with, +setting it to t is helpful. + +The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method. + +In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following +keys: + Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method + C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc + F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja +These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language +environment. + +** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file +names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the +minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to +get + + /usr/foo//etc/passwd + +which stands for the file /etc/passwd. + +Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list. +Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list. + +** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t +at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve +its owner and group. + +** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs +Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries. + +** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle +contents before inserting the specified string on each line. + +** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle +which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column +in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified +by the left edge of the rectangle. + +** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG, +increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit +C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful +for writing keyboard macros. + +** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories, +files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The +frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as +the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define +additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and +info. + +** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%. + +** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x +query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region +contents only. + +** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for +confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call +the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM +says whether to ask for confirmation in this case. + +** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited +non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file +literally. If you say no, it signals an error. + +** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature +now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook. +Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is +inconsistent with Emacs conventions. + +** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or +failure if the command produces no output. + +** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window +manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move +the mouse. + +** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to +mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related +function and variable names. + +** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for +reading specific files. This has higher priority than +file-coding-system-alist. + +** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to +t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by +converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to +the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed +according to the current fontset. + +** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed. + +The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of +that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and +nonascii-insert-offset. + +For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if +enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table +nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte +characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters. + +** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get +an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning. + +** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case +letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search. + +** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables +are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant +command keys. + +** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for +user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions. + +Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for +user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at +all variables that have documentation. + +** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer +shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way +that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable +minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap +it should show; the default is 20. + +Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode, +the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole +of your input. + +** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize +all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in +recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as +argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all +the customizable options which were changed since that version. +Newly added options are included as well. + +If you don't specify a particular version number argument, +then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options +for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded. + +This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the +Customize menu. + +** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out +the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command. + +** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of +buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were +invoked. + +** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces +that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment. +The default is 1. + +** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol +syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has +new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram +(C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block +sensibly. + +** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger. + +** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil +value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make +two entries in one day for one file, and combine them. + +** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a +reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string +for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically +every night. + +** Desktop changes + +*** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set +the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom. + +*** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored +and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'. + +** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to +read and post multi-lingual articles. + +** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when +doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should +be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden +outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and +the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is +made invisible again. + +** Mail reading and sending changes + +*** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of +the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any +changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently +toggle. + +*** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file, +now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the +summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if +the message has no subject, is stored in the variable +rmail-default-body-file. + +*** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no +longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they +handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use. + +*** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string, +it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression +is evaluated to insert the signature. + +*** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of +outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email +handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for +putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for +transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be +especially interested in trying feedmail. + +feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of +feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features +provided by feedmail are: + +**** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and +stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users); +there is also a queue for draft messages + +**** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and +be prompted for confirmation + +**** does smart filling of address headers + +**** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be +the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this +can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get + +**** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting +the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail, +/usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new +function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp) + +** Dired changes + +*** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked +files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T". + +*** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily +run Dired on the directory name at point. + +*** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of +files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match +for a specified regexp. + +** VC Changes + +*** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control +conveniently. + +*** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much +faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary +Dired. + +VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the +directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive +listing of all files at or below the given directory which are +currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown). + +You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil, +then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set +vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version +control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i' +on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired. + +All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which +is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type +`v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on +the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes +`vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked. + +The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to +toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all +VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command, +`* l', to mark all files currently locked. + +Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in +ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls +command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output. + +*** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working +file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff +session to resolve them. + +Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to +resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that +contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS +uses as well). + +*** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new +command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When +you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify +either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that +branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file. +If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively, +using ediff. + +** Changes in Font Lock + +*** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face +are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical +use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are +unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for +compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face. + +** Frame name display changes + +*** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current +frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and +raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or +when many frames are invisible or iconified. + +*** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the +frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames +menu. + +** Comint (subshell) changes + +*** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a +subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility +with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this. + +*** There are new commands in Comint mode. + +C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history; +that is, the line after the last line you got. +You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one. + +C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to +send the current line together with the following line, when you send +the following line. + +C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark, +which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the +previously sent input. + +C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input; +it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input +as the search string. + +*** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll +automatically in compilation-mode windows. + +** C mode changes + +*** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation, +and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is +assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro +definition. + +*** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified +(i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations. +Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu" +style is still the default however. + +*** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style. + +*** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which +are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer +them. They do not have key bindings by default. + +*** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) +and M-e (c-end-of-statement). + +*** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols +namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace. + +*** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets +makes the style variables local to that buffer only. + +*** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren, +c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change. + +*** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You +should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire +package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new +variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default. + +** Changes to hippie-expand. + +*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If +non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for, +which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'. + +*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If +non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when +expanding dynamically. + +*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If +non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched. + +*** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If +non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in +this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose +expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'. + +*** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied. + +** Changes in BibTeX mode. + +*** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable +bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during +automatic key generation. This replaces variable +bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches +against the first word in the title. + +*** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just +capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations, +bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with +lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use +lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the +bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting. + +*** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key +generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is +replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and +bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert. + +** Changes in vcursor.el. + +*** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap +and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A +variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be +entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including +`vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency +in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps. + +*** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the +Editing group once the package is loaded. + +*** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is +generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set +vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour. + +*** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the +vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command. + +** Ispell changes. + +*** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current +buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings +are identified by syntax tables in effect. + +*** Generic region skipping implemented. +A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will +and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user +defined. New applications and improvements made available by this +include: + + o URLs are automatically skipped + o EMail message checking is vastly improved. + +*** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals. + +** Changes to RefTeX mode + +RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very +large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been +re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the +section `Optimizations' in the manual. + +*** New recursive parser. + +The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the +entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new +recursive parser scans the individual files. + +*** Parsing only part of a document. + +Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling +partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of +the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t. + + (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t) + +*** Storing parsing information in a file. + +This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use + + (setq reftex-save-parse-info t) + +*** Using multiple selection buffers + +If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens +for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting + + (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t) + +*** References to external documents. + +The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external +documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external +documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument +macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with +RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in +the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )'). +The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer. + +*** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default. + +The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands, +and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution. + +Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes +the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly. + +*** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers + +The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc* +buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'. + +*** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes. + +The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of +contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map', +`reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes +have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you +enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?' +at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out +more. + +*** Support for the varioref package + +The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref. + +*** New hooks + +Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references, +and citations are created. These hooks are +`reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function', +`reftex-format-cite-function'. + +*** Citations outside LaTeX + +The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in +a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details. + +*** Short context is no longer fontified. + +The short context in the label menu no longer copies the +fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be +fontified, use + + (setq reftex-refontify-context t) + +** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument. +With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of +the file name within its directory; it only checks for other +directories that contain the same file name. + +Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file +Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary +file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to +Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that +have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer +names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other +directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present +directory. + +** New modes and packages + +*** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode. +It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer +it, but some do not. + +*** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL +code. + +*** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the +current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move +around in a buffer. + +Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu. + +*** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author +uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should +be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an +established system of notation similar to Chess. + +*** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp +documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style +guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual. + +*** The net-utils package makes some common networking features +available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around +system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of +simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also +functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and +the like. + +*** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to +identify recently changed parts of the buffer text. + +*** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done +within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not +used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize +the user option `midnight-mode' to t. + +*** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes. + + apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files + samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files + fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files + x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files + hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc) + mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files + javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files + vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files + java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files + java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files + mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files + + Platform-specific modes: + + prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files + pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files + alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files + inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files + ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files + reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files + bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts + rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files + rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts + +* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published + +** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, +use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. +That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode. +Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode. + +Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether +you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives +consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started. + +** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist, +and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can +specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for +searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions. + +** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and +multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte +character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language +environment. + +** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now +take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt +string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the +current input method for reading this one event. + +** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte +now control whether to output certain characters as +backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte +non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte +characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing +in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not). + +* Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published + +** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version +of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3. + +** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were +in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1) +always increases point by 1. + +The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is +considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted. + +See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters. + +** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'. +Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's +default value changed. For example, + + (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed." + :type 'integer + :group 'foo + :version "20.3") + + (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group." + :version "20.3") + +If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the +default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It +is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a +`:version' in the top level group. + +This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command. + +** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name +starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray. + +However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that +symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that +support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables +to themselves. + +If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil, +this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any +values whatever. + +** There is a new debugger command, R. +It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result +in the buffer *Debugger-record*. + +** Frame-local variables. + +You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call +the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have +local bindings for that variable. + +These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a +frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling +modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the +parameter name. + +Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings. +Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is +active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding, +that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active. + +It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not +clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a +very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect +through a window-local binding would not be very robust. + +** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing +"symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when +evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form +makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns. +See the documentation in sregex.el. + +** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which +is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to +parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended. +The contents of this field are not yet finalized. + +** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION. +If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'. + +** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from +known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can +define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead. + +** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE +when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as +it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the +history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default. + +The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to +return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters +empty input. + +** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use +for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to +`iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names. +Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as +`read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string. + +** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal, +echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments: +a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a +default password to use if the user enters nothing. + +** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to +specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a +function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the +place where a break is being considered. If the function returns +non-nil, then the line won't be broken there. + +** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE. +If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate +up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the +end of the window, even if this requires computation. + +** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME +which specifies which frame's buffer list to use. +If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list. + +** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer, +holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window +was directed to display this buffer. + +** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects +with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they +describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in +other words, if they would give the same results if passed to +set-window-configuration. + +** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two +window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer +positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of +windows and the choice of buffers to display. + +** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to +override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist +look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP). + +If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a +non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the +map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist. + +minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers, +and it is meant to be set by major modes. + +** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string +except that it discards all text properties from the result. + +** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument +USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as +floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100. + +** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory +to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined +in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems +it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables. + +** Menu changes + +*** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the +keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now +better supported. + +The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls +a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when +you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you +can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature; +then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar. + +*** A new format for menu items is supported. + +In a keymap, a key binding that has the format + (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING) +defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that +starts with the symbol `menu-item'. + +The format is: + (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or + (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST) +where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item +string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list. +The supported properties include + +:enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the + item is enabled. +:visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the + item should appear in the menu. +:filter FILTER-FN + FILTER-FN is a function of one argument, + which will be REAL-BINDING. + It should return a binding to use instead. +:keys DESCRIPTION + DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard + binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with + `substitute-command-keys' before it is used. +:key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE + KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent + keyboard binding. +:key-sequence nil + This means that the command normally has no + keyboard equivalent. +:help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used). +:button (TYPE . SELECTED) + TYPE is :toggle or :radio. + SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its + value says whether this button is currently selected. + +Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu. +Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported. + +(menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item. + +** New event types + +*** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a +mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that +corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated, +which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is: + + (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA) + +where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the +same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number +indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A +negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards +the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated +forward, away from the user. + +As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows. + +*** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of +files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged +and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of +filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically +loaded into Emacs. The format is: + + (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES) + +where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the +same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames +that were dragged and dropped. + +As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows. + +** Changes relating to multibyte characters. + +*** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only; +any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way +to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte. + +*** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You +can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character +that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape. + +*** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were +in Emacs 19 and before. + +The function chars-in-string has been deleted. +The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'. + +*** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current +buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or +unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte +representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation. + +This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed +as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents +viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as +one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation +will count as two characters using unibyte representation. + +This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which +representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer +(including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are +consistent with the new representation. + +*** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte +representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care +about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary; +however, it makes a difference when you compare strings. + +The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of +nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them +using the table nonascii-translation-table. + +*** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte +representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the +representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings. + +The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation +loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically +is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer. + +*** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string +which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte. + +*** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string +which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte. + +*** The new function compare-strings lets you compare +portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte, +so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string. +You can specify whether to ignore case or not. + +*** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that +it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal. + +*** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now +convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the +buffer or string being searched. + +One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of +[...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when +searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when +searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no +obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what +you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular +expression [^\0-\177] works for it. + +*** Structure of coding system changed. + +All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named +by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector +which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector +as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this +vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define +your own alias name of a coding system by the function +define-coding-system-alias. + +The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use +the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to +access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion, +pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode, +character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and +safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 +'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter +`iso-8859-1'. + +Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new. +The value of this property is a list of character sets which this +coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance: +(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1) + +Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can +also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they +are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode +the other character sets and read it back correctly. + +*** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a +proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string. +This function requires a user interaction. + +*** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and +find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by +select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding +systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want +a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of +select-safe-coding-system. + +*** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as +decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set +last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding +was done. + +*** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be +used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of +coding systems used by some specific language environment. + +*** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always +return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII +characters are found, they now return a list of single element +`undecided' or its subsidiaries. + +*** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and +coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different +coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is +converted. + +*** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a +coding system for communicating with other X clients. + +*** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid +character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire +character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words, +each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value +either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a +range of characters. + +*** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a +Lisp object is a valid character code or not. + +*** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character +in the current buffer at position POS. + +*** Input methods are now implemented using the variable +input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a +function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing +character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the +event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first +binding input-method-function to nil. + +The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input +method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as +input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by +the input method function are not passed to the input method function, +not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits. + +The input method function is not called when reading the second and +subsequent events of a key sequence. + +*** You can customize any language environment by using +set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook. + +The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo +customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For +instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language +environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up +exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding. + +* Changes in Emacs 20.1 + +** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user +options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look +at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a +tree structure. + +M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each +user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values. + +With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs +session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically +in your .emacs file.) + +** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window. +You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode. + +** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'. +This makes more space in the mode line for other information. + +** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted +immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it +kills the region. + +The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they +delete the character before point, as usual. + +** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted +on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature +by setting search-highlight to nil.) + +** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to +insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect, +the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked +onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the +history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the +past.) + +** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs. +This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode +in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode). +TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this +makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs. + +As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode, +and is an alias for it. + +If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph, +use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode. + +** Scrolling changes + +*** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen +position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil. + +In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing +on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line +where it started. + +*** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you +move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the +screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that +does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines. + +*** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the +top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point +comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs +recenters the window. + +** International character set support (MULE) + +Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets, +including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese, +Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese, +Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These +features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as +MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs") + +Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard +coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte +character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide +variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back +into any of these coding systems when saving a file. + +Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used, +generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs +supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or +language, to make it possible to type them. + +The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII +character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377. + +The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain +to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods. + +You can disable multibyte character support as follows: + + (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil) + +Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte +characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second +argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are +already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte +characters for their work until they want to change. + +*** Input methods + +An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed +specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language +has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use +the same characters can share one input method). Some languages +support several input methods. + +The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into +another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods +work. + +A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of +characters into one letter. Many European input methods use +composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which +consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one +sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single +letter. + +The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed +by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way. +First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone +marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are +mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character". + +None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so +they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using +phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs +converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary. + +Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled +word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use; +typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if +the first guess is wrong. + +*** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters) +turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer. + +If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each +byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as +they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for +the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2. + +However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to +use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set +includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can +translate automatically to and from either one. + +*** Visiting a file in unibyte mode. + +Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a +file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte +sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not +what you want. + +If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for +example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding +system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off +multibyte characters in that buffer. + +If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off +character conversion as well. + +*** Displaying international characters on X Windows. + +A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script. +Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports +requires using many fonts. + +Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a +collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes. + +A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by +the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you +have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as +you would use a font. + +If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it +specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot +display that character. It will display an empty box instead. + +The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters +(that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII +characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height, +or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped, +and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil. + +*** Defining fontsets. + +Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still +chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset +with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource. + +Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value +of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is +`fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the +standard fontset are created automatically. + +If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn' +argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the +FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name +with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short +name is `fontset-startup'. + +Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2... +The resource value should have this form: + FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]... +FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except: + * most fields should be just the wild card "*". + * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset" + * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset. +The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number +of times; each time specifies the font for one character set. +CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and +FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set. + +Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the +last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING. +You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name. + +For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a +font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the +following resource, + Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24 +the font for ASCII is generated as below: + -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1 +Here is the substitution rule: + Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset + defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has + the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce + sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-. + (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.) + +The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the +fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call +that function explicitly to create a fontset. + +With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just +like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset +name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the +fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle +fontsets. + +*** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs +defaults for a particular choice of language. + +Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input +method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when +visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have +already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The +language environment may also specify a default choice of coding +system for new files that you create. + +It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use +set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the +whole Emacs session. + +For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET +chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this +with (set-language-environment "Latin-1"). + +*** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) +specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This +specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving +the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the +coding systems that Emacs supports. + +*** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument) +lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file. +This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name. +After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system +is used for *the immediately following command*. + +So if the immediately following command is a command to read or +write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file. + +If the immediately following command does not use the coding system, +then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect. + +For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET +visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1. + +*** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*- +construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*- +to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also +specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end +of the file. + +*** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies +the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character +code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are +translated into that character code. + +This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in +various countries to support the languages of those countries. + +By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all. + +*** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies +the coding system for keyboard input. + +Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals +with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example, +some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it. + +By default, keyboard input is not translated at all. + +Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an +input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that +translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed +to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are +designed to work with terminals. + +*** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system) +specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess. +This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess +has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify +translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command +in the corresponding buffer. + +By default, process input and output are not translated at all. + +*** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system +to use for encoding file names before operating on them. +It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system. + +*** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates +an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the +command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you +want to use. + +C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input +method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method. + +*** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard +layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this +remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify +which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout. + +*** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays +the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus +related information. + +*** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called +HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various +scripts. + +*** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays +information about the support for a particular language. +You specify the language as an argument. + +*** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies +the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the +first dash. + +A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion +(except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion +whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits +1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters: + + A alternativnyj (Russian) + B big5 (Chinese) + C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese) + C iso-2022-cn (Chinese) + D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages) + E euc-japan (Japanese) + I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) + J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese) + K euc-korea (Korean) + R koi8 (Russian) + Q tibetan + S shift_jis (Japanese) + T lao + T tis620 (Thai) + V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese) + i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) + k iso-2022-kr (Korean) + v viqr (Vietnamese) + z hz (Chinese) + +When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system), +two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file +coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for +keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output. + +*** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code +conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil. + +When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically +into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with +rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing +Rmail files themselves. + +*** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code +conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil. + +Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system +for sending mail: + +- If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority. +- Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it. +- Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used, + if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment. +- Otherwise, Latin-1 is used. + +*** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument +to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English, +Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional +translations. + +** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion +of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command +insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer +without any conversion. + +** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed. +You can now specify any number of octal digits. +RET terminates the digits and is discarded; +any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input. + +** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for +functions, variables and file names used in your programs. + +Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point. +Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point. + +Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major +mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used. + +** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command +complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name +in the buffer before point. + +With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of +symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that +you are using. + +With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables, +just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag). + +** File locking works with NFS now. + +The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME, +in the same directory as FILENAME. + +This means that collision detection between two different machines now +works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory +can become a bottleneck. + +The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection +does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot +create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the +file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are +rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is +so useful that the change is worth while. + +When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which +are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious +collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just +tell Emacs to go ahead anyway. + +** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses, +it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call +show-paren-mode. + +** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted +selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load +delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode. + +** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words +within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load +complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode. + +** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you, +it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also +set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values. + +** Changes in View mode. + +*** Several new commands are available in View mode. +Do H in view mode for a list of commands. + +*** There are two new commands for entering View mode: +view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame. + +*** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their +previous state. + +*** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil, +scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit. + +*** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If +non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer, +not just the selected window. + +*** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a +read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only +turns View mode on or off. + +*** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls +how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil, +delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it. + +** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log, +now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version. + +** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version, +has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is +presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks +which version to compare with. + +** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden +blocks if a match is inside the block. + +The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match +is outside the block. By customizing the variable +isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily +shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search. + +By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind +of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code +blocks, all of them or none. + +** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the +current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for +confirmation first. + +** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name, +now changes the major mode according to that file name. +However, the mode will not be changed if +(1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or +(2) the current major mode is a "special" mode, + not suitable for ordinary files, or +(3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode. + +This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well. + +However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then +these commands do not change the major mode. + +** M-x occur changes. + +*** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters, +it performs a case-sensitive search. + +*** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur, +if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search +using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before. + +** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted +in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the +window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in +that window unless you select to another window which shows the same +buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window. + +** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates +after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings +appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents +come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information. + +** Each frame now independently records the order for recently +selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the +buffers recently selected in the selected frame. + +** Outline mode changes. + +*** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el). + +*** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode. + +** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if +you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer. +Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that +was already active. + +The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not +unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then +get confused by it. + +If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must +set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil. + +** Changes in dynamic abbrevs. + +*** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case +conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first +character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion +including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim. + +The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has +mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always +copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps. + +*** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search' +are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible +values. + +`dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve +case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace). +`dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore +case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search). + +** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a +certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they +can be. The default value is 30. + +** Changes in Mail mode. + +*** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly. +Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail +composition mechanism you have selected with the variable +`mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is +`sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old +behavior. + +C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs +compose-mail-other-frame. + +*** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use +the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are +replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the +buffer that shows the original message. + +*** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message, +with separator lines around the contents. + +*** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases +in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias +definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not +need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail. + +*** New features in the mail-complete command. + +**** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name, +for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style +controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all. +Its values are like those of mail-from-style. + +**** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command +to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in +/etc/passwd. + +**** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read +to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used: +/etc/passwd. + +** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of +special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a +directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a +reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'. + +Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as +when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise +be taken to be magic. + +** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select +files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is +available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep. + +M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that. +(-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.) + +** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names +suggest they are probably not needed in the long run. + +In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands. + +new key dired.el binding old key +------- ---------------- ------- + * c dired-change-marks c + * m dired-mark m + * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted) + * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted) + * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted) + * u dired-unmark u + * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL + * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-? + * ! dired-unmark-all-marks + * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m + * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-} + * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{ + +** Rmail changes. + +*** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it +saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer +chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing +each time you run it. + +*** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls +whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes. + +*** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete +messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument +means to move in the opposite direction. + +*** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets +you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned. + +*** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes +just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers. +It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you +can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used +for output. + +** Gnus changes. + +*** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion. + +*** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into +Gnus. + +*** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like +`and', `or', `not', and parent redirection. + +*** Article washing status can be displayed in the +article mode line. + +*** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files. + +*** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID. + +(setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t) + +*** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files +are to be considered home score and adapt files. See +`gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'. + +*** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics. + +*** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable. + +*** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions. +See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'. + +*** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like. +Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be +used to pick articles. + +*** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to +another have been added. + + `M-x gnus-change-server' + +*** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when +generating lines in buffers. + +*** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with +`M-C-_'. + +*** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'. + +*** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis: + + (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word)) + +*** Scores can be decayed. + + (setq gnus-decay-scores t) + +*** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The +Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first. + +*** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from +the native server. + + `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups' + +*** A new command for reading collections of documents +(nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'. + +*** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped. + +*** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post +even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting. + +*** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines +(DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added. + + Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such + a group. + +*** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard +sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently. + + See the commands under the `T S' submap. + +*** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently. + + See the commands under the `G P' submap. + +*** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups. + + Use the `Y c' command. + +*** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order. + +*** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated. + + `M-x nnmail-split-history' + +*** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk +from incoming mail before saving the mail. + + See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'. + +*** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files. + +*** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute +the following code, for instance, in your .emacs. + + (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize) + +Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically +and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime +from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this +hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling +this issue.) + +Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems +automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a +particular news group. This can be done by: + + (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM) + +Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree +of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under +"XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding +system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both +for reading and posting). + +CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form + (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM) +Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the +newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages +there. + +Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by +default. Here are some of these default settings: + + (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7) + (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312) + (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312) + (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5) + (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr)) + +When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored; +the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual. + +** CC mode changes. + +*** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java) +code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global +values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do +this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file. +Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is +loaded. + +If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, +Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode +style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers +share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set +c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you +must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded. + +*** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name +of the current buffer. + +*** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because +it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles +of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use. + +*** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C +style that the Python developers like. + +*** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace. +This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line, +just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line. + +** VC Changes [new] + +** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot +name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current +directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked). + +This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common +master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other +developers. + +You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q +RET in a buffer visiting that file. + +*** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by +other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a +writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then +calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it. + +*** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for +version numbers, based on the current state of the file. + +** Calendar changes. + +A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses +of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this +for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years. + +** ps-print changes + +There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout. + +*** Paper size, paper orientation, columns + +The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print +formats for; it should contain one of the symbols: +`a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid' +`ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5' +It defaults to `letter'. +If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'. + +The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation +of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode, +non-nil means "landscape" mode. + +The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer. +It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode. +It defaults to 1. + +*** Horizontal layout + +The horizontal layout is determined by the variables +`ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'. +All are measured in points. + +*** Vertical layout + +The vertical layout is determined by the variables +`ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'. +All are measured in points. + +*** Headers + +If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then +`ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the +margin above the text. + +If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy +framing box is printed around the header. + +The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines', +`ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'. + +The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad', +`ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and +`ps-header-font-size'. + +*** Font managing + +The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be +used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist +`ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding +elements to this alist. + +The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font +for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points. + +** hideshow changes. + +*** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for +C++, ; for lisp). + +*** Support for java-mode added. + +*** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments +in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set. + +*** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at +the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your +way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'. + +*** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more +robust and a lot faster. + +*** A block beginning can span multiple lines. + +*** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow +to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the +documentation for more details. + +** Changes in Enriched mode. + +*** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is +filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent +of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in +use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled +the next time unless the fill-column is different. + +*** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs +distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines +as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked +as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text. + +** Font Lock mode + +*** Custom support + +The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and +font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the +faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom +group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in +your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should +consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize. + +You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances. + +*** Maximum decoration + +Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by +default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level +of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration +supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil +to get the old behavior. + +*** New support + +Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes. + +Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes +support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode. + +*** Configurable support + +Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for +additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types, +c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it, +java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a +list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value +of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the +convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification. + +Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever +way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make +it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types. + +*** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support + +You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own +highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs, +for any mode. + +For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put: + + (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\ tex --> reftex.el + +** Changes in BibTeX mode. + +*** Info documentation is now available. + +*** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused +both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode. + +*** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to +bibtex-user-optional-fields. + +*** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote +(use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead). + +*** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete +entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by +appropriate functions. + +*** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of +entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h. + +*** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has +been cleaned. + +*** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables +bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter. + +*** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries +shall be delimited. + +*** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of +bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and +bibtex-include-OPTkey for details. + +*** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor +field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are +prefixed with `ALT'. + +*** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable +bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many +formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable +documentation). + +*** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See +documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions +for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too. + +*** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if +comma should be inserted at end of last field. + +*** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if +alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal +signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation). + +*** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries. + +*** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer. + +*** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database +from alien sources. + +*** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string) +to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in +crossref entries. + +*** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or +region. + +*** Added support for imenu. + +*** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead +of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a +`compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g. +`next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors. + +*** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files +from `bibtex-string-files' are searched. + +** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative. + +** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow. + +** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the +functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem. +Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory +as an argument. + +When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read +and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed). + +** browse-url changes + +*** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm), +Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window +(browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic +non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated +customization variables. + +*** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'. + +*** URLs marked up with (RFC1738) work if broken across +lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps +(e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'. + +** Changes in Ediff + +*** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel +pops up the Info file for this command. + +*** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether +the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when +merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different +directories). + +*** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare +and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of +files in the same directory. + +*** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively. +The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug +related to the GNU format has now been fixed.) + +** Changes in Viper + +*** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip +*** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper- + instead of vip-. +*** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states. +*** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next +Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before. +*** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states. +*** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state. +*** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor +color when Viper is in insert state. +*** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window, +Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable +viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior. + +** Etags changes. + +*** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by +default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average. +Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag +variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does +not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on. + +*** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags. + +*** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements" +constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java. + +*** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are +recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax). +In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash. + +*** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and +C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags +recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories, +methods and protocols. + +*** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension +.cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in +column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a +paragraph name. + +*** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of +an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression +at least M times and as many as N times. + +** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert +in files has changed slightly. + +With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string, +time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it. +This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility +with old time-stamp-format values. + +In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign +(`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character. +This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility +reasons. + +In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their +natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a +fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon +(`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical +time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are +specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d". + +Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the +case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit +truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway. + +The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are +being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the +future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being +recommended now will continue to work then. + +See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for +details. + +** There are some additional major modes: + +dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files. +m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input. +meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files. + +** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you +copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell +into Emacs. + +** New Lisp packages include: + +*** battery.el displays battery status for laptops. + +*** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might +be used for adding some indecent words to your email. + +*** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor. + +*** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes +in shell buffers. + +*** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code. +See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer' +and `elint-defun'. + +*** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is +meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary +ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within +strings or comments. + +These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an +abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev, +you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these +insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text +at these points. + +*** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you +can visit them by short forms of their names. + +*** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded +Emacs Lisp function at point. + +*** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture. + +*** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like +switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way. + +*** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning. + +*** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program. + +*** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input. + +*** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations +from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed. + +*** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature. +You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically +inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its +original place after inserting the copy. + +*** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2 +on the buffer. + +You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the +velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll +(with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed. + +Enable mouse-drag with: + (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw) +-or- + (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag) + +*** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have +mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail. + +*** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave. +It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess. + +*** ogonek + +The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of +Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various +platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and +TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to +ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to +prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for +instance) and vice versa. + +To use this package load it using + M-x load-library [enter] ogonek +Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of + M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish + M-x ogonek-how -- in English +The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the +ways of customization in `.emacs'. + +*** Interface to ph. + +Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi) + +The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory +services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to +these servers. + +*** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email. + +*** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature. +You can move the virtual cursor with special commands +while the real cursor does not move. + +*** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up +for visiting your favorite web sites. + +*** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations, +so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used. + +** movemail change + +Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP +mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer +supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the +user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server. + +This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before. + +* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows. + +** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files. + +Emacs handles three different conventions for representing +end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the +Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific +file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special +file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention. + +To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use +C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different +coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly +specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with +LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to +save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos. + +* Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1 + +** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in +Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And +vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in +Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20. + +** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed +to start with w32- instead of win32-. + +In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We +don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it +"win". + +** Basic Lisp changes + +*** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically +evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant. + +*** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now +be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program +or by the user. + +The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed. + +*** There are new macros `when' and `unless' + +(when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...)) +(unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...) + +*** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their +usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of +its argument. + +*** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties. + +*** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function. + +*** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors. + +*** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an +error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives +include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the +`format' function. + +*** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el +or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file +whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc. + +*** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain +either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on +adding one of these suffixes. + +*** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE +which specifies the base to use when converting an integer. +If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used. + +We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers, +because that would be much more work and does not seem useful. + +*** substring now handles vectors as well as strings. + +*** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally. +You must load the `cl' library to define it. + +*** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression +conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this: + + (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...) + +BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use. +BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer. + +*** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the +choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or +restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer' +works using `save-current-buffer'. + +*** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and +write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value +of the last form. + +*** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer, +which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the +last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string) +as the last form. + +*** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain +characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the +matches. + +For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose"). + +*** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions +with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string. +Then it returns that string. + +For example, if the current buffer name is `foo', + +(with-output-to-string + (princ "The buffer is ") + (princ (buffer-name))) + +returns "The buffer is foo". + +** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters +is non-nil. + +These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the +buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte +characters that occupy several buffer positions each. + +*** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in +a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four). + +Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements; +character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes. +Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer +position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole +characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to + (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))). + +ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always. +Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent +non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte +characters". + +The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128 +through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called +"leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the +range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the +leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is. + +*** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore +(forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a +multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a +character, which may be more than one buffer position. + +This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is +always one buffer position, need to be changed. + +However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position. + +*** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters, +because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters +have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However, +the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters, +guaranteed. + +*** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is +between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a +character). + +When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS: + + 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range, + 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form, + 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form, + 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form, + 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character. + +*** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses. + +*** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function +`length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be +more than the number of characters. + +You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing +it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape, +\xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which +is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to +follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and +newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape. + +*** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters +and returns a string containing those characters. + +*** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string. +(sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX +counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a +character, sref signals an error. + +*** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters +in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the +string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes). + +*** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters +in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the +region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes). + +*** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of +the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string +to a vector of the characters in it. + +*** The function store-substring alters part of the contents +of a string. You call it as follows: + + (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ) + +This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in +STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string. +This function really does alter the contents of STRING. +Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string, +it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length. + +*** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR, +if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window. + +*** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING, +if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window. + +*** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary, +to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does +not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string +which contains all or just part of the existing string.) + +(truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING) + +This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN. + +The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column. +If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string +are not included in the resulting value. + +The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added +at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly +WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING +is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING. + +If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean +place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one +character extends across that column), then the padding character +PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result +string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at +column START-COLUMN. + +*** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called, +the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not +necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the +difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the +changed text, before the change. + +*** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character +sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is +one character set for each script, not for each language. + +**** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name. + +**** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names. + +**** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character +set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.) + +**** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the +name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values +which identify the character within that character set. + +**** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent +byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the +opposite of split-char. + +**** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets +of all the characters between BEG and END. + +**** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets +of all the characters in a string. + +*** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems +and specifying coding systems. + +**** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding +system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list +of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants. +(Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix +and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well +as what to do about code conversion.) + +**** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system +name. It returns t if so, nil if not. + +**** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use +for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist, +except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name. + +Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines +which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp +to match against a file name. + +VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or +a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both +decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent +to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding +systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr +specifies the coding system for encoding. + +If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system +or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above. + +**** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies +the coding system to use for network sockets. + +Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines +which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be +either a port number or a regular expression matching some network +service names. + +VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or +a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both +decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent +to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding +systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr +specifies the coding system for encoding. + +If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system +or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above. + +**** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use +for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist, +except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to +start the subprocess. + +**** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding +systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output, +when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell +(OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output +to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it. + +**** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the +coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous +subprocess. + +It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection, +but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you +start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or +connection permanently or until overridden. + +The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over +file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and +network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a +coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil. +It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding +system for one operation at a time. + +**** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from +files, subprocesses or network connections. + +**** The function process-coding-system tells you what +coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using. +The value is a cons cell, + (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM) +where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from +the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding +input to the subprocess. + +**** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to +change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess. + +** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many +customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility, +you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom. + +You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option +variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of +information (usually): the "type" which says what values are +legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for +customization. + +Thus, instead of writing + + (defvar foo-blurgoze nil + "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.") + +you would now write this: + + (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil + "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely." + :type 'boolean + :group foo) + +The type `boolean' means that this variable has only +two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values +describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom +for a description of them. + +The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option +should belong to. You define a new group like this: + + (defgroup ispell nil + "Spell checking using Ispell." + :group 'processes) + +The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root +group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself, +but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond +to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come +second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages. + +Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple +package should have just one group; a more complex package should +have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a +package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword" +first-level subgroups. + +** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers. + +This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a +separate manual that accompanies Emacs. + +** easy-mmode + +The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make +developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code +only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles, +predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro +`easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also +`easy-mmode-define-keymap'. + +** Text property changes + +*** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a +text property. + +*** The new functions next-char-property-change and +previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a +place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The +functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the +starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan. + +If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If +LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part +of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the +position of the beginning or end of the buffer. + +*** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property +value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This +is an alternative to using the keymap itself. + +** Changes in invisibility features + +*** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are +hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match +is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay +should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that +would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should +make the overlay visible. + +During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the +invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are +needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary +which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is +the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and +t when it should hide it. + +*** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec + +Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the +invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol) +and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol. +Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to +manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'. +Here is an example of how to do this: + + ;; If we want to display an ellipsis: + (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t)) + ;; If you don't want ellipsis: + (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol) + + ... + (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol) + + ... + ;; When done with the overlays: + (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t)) + ;; Or respectively: + (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol) + +** Changes in syntax parsing. + +*** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as +`parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now +obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable +`parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil. + +If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior +is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always +used to determine the syntax of the character at the position. + +When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a +character in the buffer is calculated thus: + + a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character + is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type; + + Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid + syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e., + a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR). + + b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property + is a syntax table, this syntax table is used + (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to + determine the syntax type of the character. + + c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table + of the current buffer. + +*** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the +value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as +for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions. + +*** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14 +and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended +only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A +character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by +another character with the same code (unless quoted). + +These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table' +text property. + +*** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth +arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start +of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string. + +*** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp' +(and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth +element: the character address of the start of last comment or string; +nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the +string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code. + +*** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete +syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports +`font-lock-comment-start-regexp'. + +** Changes in face features + +*** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even +if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces. + +*** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string +of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one). + +*** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold. +set-face-bold-p sets that flag. + +*** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic. +set-face-italic-p sets that flag. + +*** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text +by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME) +and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in +the `face' property (either the character's text property or an +overlay property). + +This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use +arbitrary colors in a Lisp package. + +** Changes in file-handling functions + +*** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant +directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words, +they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion +is now done only in substitute-in-file-name. + +This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name +begins with ~. + +*** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file, +it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error. + +*** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if +the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers. + +*** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file, +as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil. + +*** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses +character code conversion as well as other things. + +Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names +(formerly it did not). + +*** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR +environment variable to decide which directory to put them in. + +*** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps +instead of constant strings. + +*** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used +to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of +any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through. + +substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially, +in the same way as before. + +*** The variable `format-alist' is more general now. +The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings +which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion. + +*** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an +error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing +else, and returns nil. + +*** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified +directory cannot be listed. + +** Changes in minibuffer input + +*** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string +read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an +additional argument which specifies the default value. If this +argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two +ways: + + It is returned if the user enters empty input. + It is available through the history command M-n. + +*** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer, +read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional +argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the +minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of +enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer. + +In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an +argument in this way. + +*** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties +from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable +minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil. + +** Echo area features + +*** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook +echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the +minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active +after the echo area is cleared. + +*** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed +in the echo area, or nil if there is none. + +** Keyboard input features + +*** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was +set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started. + +*** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events +received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated +by keyboard macros. + +** Frame-related changes + +*** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before +creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal +hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg. + +*** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time +the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration +has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run. + +*** Each frame now independently records the order for recently +selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the +value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed +in the selected frame. + +*** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars +is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies +which side of the window to put the scroll bars on. + +** X Windows features + +*** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding +x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of +x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs. + +*** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work. +The menu displays the current status of the box or button. + +*** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument +MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return. +A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster. + +If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern, +it is good to supply 1 for this argument. + +** Subprocess features + +*** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter +functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this +automatically. + +*** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command +and returns the output from the command as a string. + +*** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process, +and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection. + +** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook +does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before. + +** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes +at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it +goes after the other menu items. + +** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area +of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls +around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks +are in use. + +The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a +series of several changes--if that seems safe. + +Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and +after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls +form. + +** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION +is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense, +but its hook is still run. + +** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it) +for errors that are handled by condition-case. + +If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called +regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is +useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case. + +This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that +are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process +filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't +warned. + +** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own +way for Emacs to "ring the bell". + +** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at +integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for +functions like display-time. + +** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file +name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before. + +** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that +can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode +is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit. + +** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code +if there is an error in compilation. + +** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and +switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional +argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil, +they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list. + +** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty, +Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing +the *scratch* buffer. + +** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string. +The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used +where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important, +e.g., in Font Lock mode. + +** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer, +and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window. +It starts at 0 when the buffer is created. + +** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message +using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the +variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window +and compose-mail-other-frame. + +** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which +can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The +full name of the specified user will be returned. + +** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort +of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding +where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found +in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q +option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization +files at all. + +** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width +and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field +width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start +the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros. + +For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the +minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad +with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that +is how %S normally pads to two positions. + +** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url. + +** imenu.el changes. + +You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an +item from menu created by imenu. + +An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the +#include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we +select one of those items. + +* Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes. + +* Changes in Emacs 19.33. + +** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major +mode should do that--it is the user's choice.) + +** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to +use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on. +Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works. + +* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32 + +** C-x f with no argument now signals an error. +To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f. + +** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case +conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it +matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the +expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional +word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is +all caps. + +** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame +at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame. + +When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2 +does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same +as in previous Emacs versions. + +** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a +non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any +time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple +frames. + +** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value +if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu. +This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the +Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by +accident. + +** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined +keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region. +It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that +line and then executing the macro. + +This command is not new, but was never documented before. + +** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant +(something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter +characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting +characters. + +** Font Lock mode + +*** Font Lock support modes + +Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see +below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the +hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode +to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when +Font Lock mode is enabled. + +For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put: + + (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode) + +in your ~/.emacs. + +*** lazy-lock + +The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur +only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer +becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and +Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events +occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the +buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until +Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time. + +To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs: + + (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode) + +To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'. + +** Changes in BibTeX mode. + +*** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or +paren and key. + +*** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now +supported. + +** Gnus changes. + +Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new +commands and variables have been added. There should be no +significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the +previously released version, except in the message composition area. + +Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes +between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive. + +*** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization +variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now +obsolete. + +*** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where +missing articles are represented by empty nodes. + + (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some) + +*** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server. + + To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil) + +*** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are +referred. + +*** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions: + + (setq gnus-use-grouplens t) + +*** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed. + + (setq gnus-use-trees t) + +*** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary +buffers. + + (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode) + +*** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode: + + `M-x gnus-binary-mode' + +*** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy. + + (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode) + +*** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail. + + Use the `S D r' and `S D b'. + +*** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency +is possible. + + (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group) + +*** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on +groups of groups. + +*** Caching is possible in virtual groups. + +*** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news +batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else. + +*** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets. + +*** The Gnus cache is much faster. + +*** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria. + + For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank) + +*** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and +expiration times. + +*** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used. + +*** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on +process marked articles on the `M P' submap. + +*** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available +articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been +bound to keys on the `/' submap. + +*** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving +articles with the `*' command. + +*** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles. + +*** Article headers can be buttonized. + + (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head) + +*** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID. + +*** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the +`nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable. + +*** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article +buffer. + +*** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'. + +*** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process. + +*** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam. + + (setq gnus-use-nocem t) + +*** Groups can be made permanently visible. + + (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:") + +*** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier. + +*** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header. + +*** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header. + + (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function + 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references) + +*** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid +refetching. + + (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50) + +*** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate +buffer to allow easier treatment. + +*** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'. + +*** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving. + + (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t) + +*** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching +articles. + + (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view) + +*** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text. + +*** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much +cited text to hide is now customizable. + + (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2) + +*** Boring headers can be hidden. + + (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers) + +*** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar. + +*** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added. + +The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features +in greater detail. + +* Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32 + +** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional +second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not +asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already +exists. + +** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors, +as well as lists. + +** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap +of a given keymap. + +** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a +given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a +keymap or nil. + +** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really +an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real" +name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil +menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for +equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the +alias. + +* Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31 + +** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States. + +Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act. +This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law +was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans +far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any +pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited. + +For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what +you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site +`http://www.vtw.org/'. + +** A note about C mode indentation customization. + +The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style +do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode. +It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are +much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs +chapter of the manual for details. + +However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old +customization variables take effect. + +** Marking with the mouse. + +When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains +highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are +using M-x transient-mark-mode. + +** Improved Windows NT/95 support. + +*** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95. + +*** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used +to work on NT only and not on 95.) + +*** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems +in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as +you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS +application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS +applications, these problems are significant. + +If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is +likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy. +However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess +will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any +other DOS application as a subprocess. + +Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess. +You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess. + +If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate +subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably +have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy. +Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two +separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing +Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes. + +** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode. + +This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in +which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the +minibuffer contains. + +** `title' frame parameter and resource. + +The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else. +It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources. +It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise +affects just the displayed title of the frame. + +The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do: +it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources, +and also serves as the default for the displayed title +when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil. + +** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new +enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer). + +** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the +F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual +Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif. + +If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif +menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add +something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds +the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12: + + Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : ShiftF12 + +** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases +to replace the characters it "deletes". + +** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message. + +** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts +a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it, +select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command. +It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message +immediately after the selected one. + +This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly +made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs. + +** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory. + +Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home +directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover. +If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If +Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x +recover-session. + +You can turn off the writing of these files by setting +auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session +will not work. + +Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on +normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off +this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this +bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so +now that the bug is fixed. + +** Changes to Version Control (VC) + +There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do +when you visit a link to a file that is under version control. +Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system, +which is dangerous and probably not what you want. + +If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file, +telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default), +VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil, +the link is visited and a warning displayed. + +** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language. +Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which +is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters). + +There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and +Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they +enable only the accent characters needed for particular language. +The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language, +remain normal. + +** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various +header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...). + +Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups +known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header +offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since +Followup-To usually just holds one of those. + +Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list +of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides +a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user +name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the +documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and +`mail-directory-stream'.) + +** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured) +skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named +characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible +with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s. + +Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and +- to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be +wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results). + +The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or +less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for +headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit / +Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable. +Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to +fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due +to a limitation in font-lock). + +External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving. + +** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current +buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all +buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in +this example: + + (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook + '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index"))) + +** Changes in BibTeX mode. + +*** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores. + +*** Font Lock mode is now supported. + +*** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive. + +*** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new +entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting +will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or +isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c +(bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it. +The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil. + +*** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q +does the same job. + +*** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author = +"Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported. + +*** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help +text. + +** Font Lock mode + +*** Global Font Lock mode + +Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the +new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable +font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically +turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned +on globally where the buffer mode supports it. + +For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put: + + (global-font-lock-mode t) + +in your ~/.emacs. + +*** Local Refontification + +In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only. +However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines, +those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new +command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block). + +In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function. +(The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the +current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines +above and below point. + +With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point. + +** Follow mode + +Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same +buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two +side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if +they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window, +split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x +follow-mode. + +M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled. + +To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the +command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split. + +** hide-show changes. + +The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed +to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for +normal hooks. + +** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands. +The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q. + +** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are +recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are +those that begin a function, record, or macro. + +** MSDOS Changes + +*** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP. +Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works. + +*** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten +and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs. + +*** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak. + +*** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously +pressing both mouse buttons. + +*** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had +restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones +are: + +**** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package) +now works. + +**** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode). + +**** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new +implementation of Emacs timers, see below). + +**** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards. + +**** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms. + +**** `M-x recover-session' works. + +**** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors. + +**** The `TPU-EDT' package works. + +* Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31. + +** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95 +tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a +remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in +this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this +behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it. + +** Change in system-type and system-configuration values. + +The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux', +not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type' +need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also +be different. + +It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather +than `system-type'. + +See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this. + +** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process +now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them. + +** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers +that pointed into or next to the deleted text. + +** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and +no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more +reliably and can be used for shorter time delays. + +The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer +to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks +like this: + + (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...) + +SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens. +It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer +becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS. + +REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in +seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0 +means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once. + +*** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give +up if too much time passes. + + (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...) + +This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds. +If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value +of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last +form in BODY. + +*** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for +a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A +call looks like this: + + (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...) + +SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer +runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the +timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments +ARGS. + +Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse +command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse +command. + +REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each +time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer +does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after +each time Emacs becomes idle. + +If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is +idle for SECS seconds. + +*** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at +all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your +programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers +instead. + +*** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if +there is no answer within a certain time. + + (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE) + +asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers +within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave. +Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE. + +** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven +arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual +meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the +arguments in between are ignored. + +This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as +the list of arguments for `encode-time'. + +** The default value of load-path now includes the directory +/usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to +/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for +site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs +version. + +It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs +version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating +for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that +has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself +and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the +problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve. + +** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or +.abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating +systems with limited file name syntax. + +Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function +convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form +for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file +completions.el: + +(defvar save-completions-file-name + (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions") + "*The filename to save completions to.") + +This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that +depends on the operating system, because the definition of +convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On +Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On +MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system. + +** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument +rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the +minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.) + +** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process +marker from its buffer position. + +** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether +Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection. +The default is nil, meaning there are no messages. + +** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors +that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error +condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any +of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions +matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger, +regardless of the value of debug-on-error. + +This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting +errors that happen often during editing. + +** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum +into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case +puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened. + +** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window +now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window. + +** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying +a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer +name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames +to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc., +and not get-buffer-window. + +** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions, +calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer +being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them. + +If you use this feature, you should set the variable +buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a +property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a +non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions +are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil +property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called +over and over for the same text. + +** Changes in lisp-mnt.el + +*** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written +in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command: + +;; @(#) HEADER: text +;; $HEADER: text $ + +in addition to the normal + +;; HEADER: text + +*** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify +checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and +lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information. + +* For older news, see the file ONEWS. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +Copyright information: + +Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. + + Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies + of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the + copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved, + thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn. + + Permission is granted to distribute modified versions + of this document, or of portions of it, + under the above conditions, provided also that they + carry prominent notices stating who last changed them. + +Local variables: +mode: outline +paragraph-separate: "[ ]*$" +end: