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428
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1 -*- mode:outline -*-
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2
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3 * Introduction
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4 ==============
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5
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6 This file presents some general information about XEmacs. It is
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7 primarily about the changes in recent XEmacs versions and its release
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8 history.
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9
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10 Use `C-c C-f' to move to the next equal level of outline, and
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11 `C-c C-b' to move to previous equal level. `C-h m' will give more
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12 info about the Outline mode. Many commands are also available through
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13 the menubar.
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14
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15 Users who would like to know which capabilities have been introduced
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16 in each release should look at the appropriate section of this file.
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17 Starting with version 20.0, XEmacs includes ChangeLogs, which can be
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18 consulted for a more detailed list of changes.
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19
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20 Users interested in some of the details of how XEmacs differs from GNU
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21 Emacs should read the section "What's Different?" near the end of this
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22 file.
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23
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24 N.B. The term "GNU Emacs" refers to any release of Emacs Version
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25 19 from the Free Software Foundation's GNU Project. (We do not
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26 say just "Emacs" as Richard M. Stallman ["RMS"] prefers, because
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27 it is clearly a more generic term.) The term "XEmacs" refers to
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28 this program or to its predecessors "Era" and "Lucid Emacs". The
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29 predecessor of all these program is called "Emacs 18". When no
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30 particular version is implied, "Emacs" will be used.
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31
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32
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33 * Changes in XEmacs 21.2
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34 ========================
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35
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36 ** `delete-key-deletes-forward' now defaults to t.
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37
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38 `delete-key-deletes-forward' is the variable that regulates the
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39 behaviour of the delete key on the systems that offer both a backspace
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40 and a delete key. If set to nil, the key labeled "Delete" will delete
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41 backward. If set to non-nil, the "Delete" key will delete forward,
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42 except on keyboards where a "Backspace" key is not provided.
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43
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44 Unless our implementation has bugs, the only reason why you would want
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45 to set `delete-key-deletes-forward' to nil is if you want to use the
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46 Delete key to delete backwards, despite the presence (according to
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47 Xlib) of a BackSpace key on the keyboard.
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48
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49 ** Interactive searching and matching case improvements.
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50
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51 Case sensitiveness in searching operations is normally controlled by
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52 the variable `case-fold-search' (if non-nil, case is ignored while
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53 searching). This mechanism has now been slightly improved for
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54 interactive searches: if the search string (or regexp) contains
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55 uppercase characters, the searching is forced to be case-sensitive,
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56 `case-fold-search'.
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57
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58 The new behavior affects all functions performing interactive
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59 searches, like `zap-to-char', `list-matching-lines', `tags-search'
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60 etc. The incremental search facility has always behaved that way.
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61
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62 ** The rectangle functions have been almost completely rewritten in
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63 order to avoid inserting undesirable spaces, notably at the end of
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64 lines. Two typical examples of the old behavior were
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65 `string-rectangle', which filled all lines up to the right side of the
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66 rectangle, and `clear-rectangle', which filled even empty lines up to
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67 the left side. All functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting
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68 unwanted spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the
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69 old way.
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70
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71 As a side effect, the FORCE argument to `move-to-column' now
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72 understands the special value `coerce', which means that the line
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73 should not be filled if it is too short to reach the desired column.
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74
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75 ** Incremental search will now highlight all visible matches, making
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76 it easier to anticipate where consecutive C-s or C-r will place the
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77 point. If you want to disable the feature, set
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78 `isearch-highlight-all-matches' to nil.
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79
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80 ** You can now customize and save comments for faces and variables.
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81 In Custom buffers, a new menu entry allows you to add and edit a
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82 comment. Comments for variables can also be assigned by calling
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83 `customize-set-(value|variable)' with a prefix argument.
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84
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85 ** XEmacs now locates the early package hierarchies at
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86 ~/.xemacs/mule-packages/ and ~/.xemacs/xemacs-packages/. Previously,
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87 the early packages were located in ~/.xemacs/.
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88
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89 ** You can now create "indirect buffers", like in GNU Emacs. An
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90 indirect buffer shares its text with another buffer ("base buffer"),
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91 but has its own major mode, local variables, extents, and narrowing.
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92 An indirect buffer has a name of its own, distinct from those of the
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93 base buffer and all other buffers. An indirect buffer cannot itself
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94 be visiting a file (though its base buffer can be). The base buffer
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95 cannot itself be indirect.
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96
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97 Use (make-indirect-buffer BASE-BUFFER NAME) to make an indirect buffer
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98 named NAME whose base is BASE-BUFFER. If BASE-BUFFER is itself an
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99 indirect buffer, its base buffer is used as the base for the new
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100 buffer.
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101
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102 You can make an indirect buffer current, or switch to it in a window,
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103 just as you would a non-indirect buffer.
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104
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105 The function `buffer-base-buffer' returns a buffer's base buffer or
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106 nil, if given an ordinary (non-indirect) buffer. The function
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107 `buffer-indirect-children' returns a list of the indirect children of
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108 a base buffer.
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109
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110 ** User names following the tilde character can now be completed at
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111 file name prompts; e.g. `C-x C-f ~hni<TAB>' will complete to
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112 `~hniksic/'. To make this operation faster, a cache of user names is
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113 maintained internally.
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114
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115 The new primitives available for this purpose are functions named
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116 `user-name-completion' and `user-name-all-completions'.
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117
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118 ** XEmacs can now play sound using Enlightenment Sound Daemon (ESD).
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119 It will try NAS first, then ESD, then playing native sound directly.
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120
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121 ** X-Face support is now available under MS-Windows.
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122 If an X-Face libary built under MS-Windows is available then XEmacs
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123 will use this at build time.
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124
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125 ** The font-menu is now available under MS-Windows.
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126
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127 ** MS-Windows support for selection is now much more robust.
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128
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129 Generally selection should now do what you would expect under
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130 MS-Windows: the middle mouse button will paste your current selection
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131 or the clipboard; conversions from different types of selection to the
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132 clipboard can be made; the kill-ring and friends will be updated as
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133 per X.
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134
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135 The only thing selection doesn't do is set the clipboard automatically
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136 as this would break the MS-Windows model. If you want this behaviour
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137 then set `selection-sets-clipboard' to t
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138
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438
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139 ** Mail spool locking now works correctly.
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140 XEmacs has always come with a little auxiliary program, movemail,
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141 which moves mail out of the system's spool area into user storage. To
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142 coordinate between XEmacs, the mail delivery agent, and other mail
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143 user agents, movemail needs to properly lock the spool file before
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144 moving it. Movemail now correctly respects the --mail-locking option
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145 to configure. Moreover, movemail's locking behavior can be specified
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146 at run-time, via a new command-line option -m to movemail, or through
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147 the environment variable EMACSLOCKMETHOD.
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148
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149 When installing XEmacs, make sure you configure it according to your
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150 environment's mail spool locking conventions. When you're using a
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151 binary kit, set the `mail-lock-method' variable at startup, or the
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152 EMACSLOCKMETHOD environment variable.
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153
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428
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154 ** New command-line switches -user-init-file and -user-init-directory.
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155 These can be used to specify alternate locations for what is normally
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156 ~/.emacs and ~/.xemacs.
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157
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158 Moreover, -user <user> (which used to only work in unpredictable ways)
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159 is now equivalent to
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160 -user-init-file ~<user>/.emacs -user-init-directory ~<user>/.xemacs.
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161
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438
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162 ** New variable `mswindows-meta-activates-menu'.
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163 If you set this variable to nil then pressing the Alt key under
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164 MS-Windows will no longer activate the menubar. The default is t.
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165
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428
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166 ** Etags changes.
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167
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168 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
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169
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170 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
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171 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
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172 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
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173 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
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174 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
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175
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176 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
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177 declarations when given the --declarations option.
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178
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179 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
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180 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
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181
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182 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
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183 types.
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184
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185 *** In Fortran, procedure is no more tagged.
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186
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187 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
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188
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189 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
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190 are now tagged.
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191
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192 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
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193 variables are tagged.
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194
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195 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
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196
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197 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
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198 for PSWrap.
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199
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200
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201 * Lisp and internal changes in XEmacs 21.2
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202 ==========================================
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203
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430
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204 ** A new portable dumper is available.
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205
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206 Olivier Galibert has written a portable dumper for XEmacs, based on
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207 initial work by Kyle Jones. Normally, XEmacs C sources link into an
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208 executable called `temacs', which loads the Lisp code and "unexecs"
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432
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209 into a proper `xemacs' executable. The unexec() process is hard to
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210 implement correctly and makes XEmacs very hard to port to new
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211 operating systems, or even to new releases of old systems.
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430
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212
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213 A portable dumper is a different approach to dumping: instead of
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214 dumping full-fledged executable, it only dumps out the initialized
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215 data structures (both Lisp and C) into an external file. A normally
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216 running XEmacs only needs to mmap() that file and relocate a bit to
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217 get to the initialized data. In that scheme, there is no difference
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218 between `temacs' and `xemacs'.
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219
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220 This is all very experimental, though. Configure with `--pdump' to
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221 try testing it. NOTE: it is expected that `make' will fail after
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222 dumping `xemacs.dmp'. This is because Makefiles have not yet been
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223 modified to not expect `temacs' producing an `xemacs' executable. You
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224 can try it out by simply running `src/temacs'. If it starts without
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225 failure, the portable dumping worked.
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226
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428
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227 ** Much effort has been invested to make XEmacs Lisp faster:
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228
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229 *** Many basic lisp operations are now faster.
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230 This is especially the case when running a Mule-enabled XEmacs.
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231
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232 A general overhaul of the lisp engine should produce a speedup of 1.4
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233 in a Latin-1 XEmacs, and 2.1 in a Mule XEmacs. These numbers were
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234 obtained running `(byte-compile "simple.el")', which should be a
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235 pretty typical test of "pure" Lisp.
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236
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237 *** Lisp hash tables have been re-implemented. The Common Lisp style
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238 hash table interface has been made standard, and moved from cl.el into
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239 fast C code (See the section on hash tables in the XEmacs Lisp
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240 Reference). A speedup factor of 3 can be expected with code that
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241 makes intensive use of hash tables.
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242
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243 *** The garbage collector has been tuned, leading to a speedup of
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244 1.16.
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245
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246 *** The family of functions that iterate over lists, like `memq', and
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247 `rassq', have been made a little faster (typically 1.3).
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248
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249 *** Lisp function calls are faster, by approximately a factor of two.
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250 However, defining inline functions (via defsubst) still makes sense
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251 for tight loops.
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252
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253 *** Finally, a few functions have had dramatic performance
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254 improvements. For example, `(last long-list)' is now 30 times faster.
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255
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256 Of course, your mileage will vary.
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257
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258 Many operations do not see any improvement. Surprisingly, running
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259 (font-lock-fontify-buffer) does not use the Lisp engine much at all.
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260 Speeding up your favorite slow operation is an excellent project to
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261 improve XEmacs. Don't forget to profile!
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262
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430
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263 ** Native widgets can be displayed in buffers.
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264
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265 The glyph system has been extended to allow the display of glyphs that
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266 are implemented as native window-system widgets. Thus you can embed
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267 buttons, scrollbars, combo boxes, edit fields and progress gauges in a
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268 buffer. As a side effect subwindow support now works once again.
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269
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432
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270 All of this is still very experimental. This feature is currently
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271 more complete under MS-Windows.
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430
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272
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273 ** user-init-directory is now an absolute, unexpanded path.
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274 Previously, `user-init-directory' used to be relative to
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275 (concat "~" init-file-user). This turned out to be too complicated
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276 for most packages (and some core Lisp files) to use correctly.
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277
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278 Also, `init-file-user' has been obsoleted in the process.
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279
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428
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280 ** XEmacs finally has an automated test suite!
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281 Although this is not yet very sophisticated, it is already responsible
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282 for several important bug fixes in XEmacs. To try it out, simply use
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283 the makefile target `make check' after building XEmacs.
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284
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285 ** Hash tables have been reimplemented.
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286 As was pointed out above, the standard interface to hash tables is now
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287 the Common Lisp interface, as described in Common Lisp, the Language
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288 (CLtL2, by Steele). The older interface (functions with names
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289 containing the phrase `hashtable') will continue to work, but the
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290 preferred interface now has names containing the phrase `hash-table'.
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291
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292 Here's the executive overview: create hash tables using
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293 make-hash-table, and use gethash, puthash, remhash, maphash and
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294 clrhash to manipulate entries in the hash table. See the (updated)
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295 Lisp Reference Manual for details.
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296
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297 ** Lisp code handles circular lists much more robustly.
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298 Many basic lisp functions used to loop forever when given a circular
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299 list, expecting you to C-g (quit) out of the loop. Now this is more
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300 likely to trigger a `circular-list' error. Printing a circular list
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301 now results in something like this:
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302
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303 (let ((x (cons 'foo 'foo)))
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304 (setcdr x x)
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305 x)
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306 => (foo ... <circular list>)
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307
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308 An extra bonus is that checking for circularities is not just
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309 friendlier, but actually faster than checking for C-g.
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310
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430
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311 ** Functions for decoding base64 encoding are now available; see
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312 `base64-encode-region', `base64-encode-string', `base64-decode-region'
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313 and `base64-decode-string'.
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428
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314
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430
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315 ** The arguments to `locate-file' are now more Lisp-like. As before,
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316 the usage is:
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428
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317
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318 (locate-file FILENAME PATH-LIST &optional SUFFIXES MODE)
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319
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320 Except that SUFFIXES are now a list of strings instead of a single,
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321 colon-separated string. MODE is now a symbol or a list of symbols
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322 (symbols `exists', `executable', `writable', and `readable' are
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323 supported) instead of an integer code. See the documentation for
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324 details. Of course, the old form is still accepted for backward
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325 compatibility.
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326
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327 Several bugs in locate-file have been fixed, most notably its failure
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328 to call expand-file-name on elements of PATH-LIST. Because of that
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329 elements of load-path of the form "~/..." used to not work.
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330 locate-file is now guaranteed to expand files during its course of
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331 operation.
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332
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333 ** `translate-region' has been improved in several ways. Its TABLE
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334 argument used to be a 256-character string. In addition to this, it
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335 can now also be a vector or a char-table, which makes the function
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336 useful for Mule, which it wasn't. If TABLE a vector or a generic
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337 char-table, you can map characters to strings instead of to other
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338 characters. For instance:
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339
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340 (let ((table (make-char-table 'generic)))
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341 (put-char-table ?a "the letter a" table)
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342 (put-char-table ?b "" table)
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343 (put-char-table ?c ?\n table)
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344 (translate-region (point-min) (point-max) table))
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345
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430
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346 ** The new form `ignore-file-errors', similar to `ignore-errors' may
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347 be used as a short-hand for condition-case when you wish to ignore
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348 file-related error. For example:
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349
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350 (ignore-file-errors (delete-file "foo"))
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351
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352 ** The first argument to `intern-soft' may now also be a symbol, like
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353 with `unintern'. If given a symbol, `intern-soft' will look for that
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354 exact symbol rather than for any string. This is useful when you want
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355 to check whether a specific symbol is interned in an obarray, e.g.:
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356
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357 (intern "foo")
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358 (intern-soft "foo")
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359 => foo
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360 (intern-soft (make-symbol "foo"))
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361 => nil
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362
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428
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363 ** The `keywordp' function now returns non-nil only on symbols
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364 interned in the global obarray. For example:
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365
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366 (keywordp (intern ":foo" [0]))
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367 => nil
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368 (keywordp (intern ":foo")) ; The same as (keywordp :foo)
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369 => t
|
|
|
370
|
|
|
371 This behaviour is compatible with other code which treats symbols
|
|
|
372 beginning with colon as keywords only if they are interned in the
|
|
|
373 global obarray. `keywordp' used to wrongly return t in both cases
|
|
|
374 above.
|
|
|
375
|
|
|
376
|
|
|
377 * Changes in XEmacs 21.0
|
|
|
378 ========================
|
|
|
379
|
|
|
380 ** XEmacs has been unbundled into constituent installable packages.
|
|
|
381 See the Info documentation under "Packages" for more information.
|
|
|
382 See the file `etc/PACKAGES' in the distribution for a partial list of
|
|
|
383 packages available at the time of the 21.0 release.
|
|
|
384
|
|
|
385 ** XEmacs is now supported under Microsoft Windows 95/98 and Windows
|
|
|
386 NT operating systems. For starters, look at the XEmacs on Windows FAQ
|
|
|
387 at <URL:http://jagor.srce.hr/~hniksic/xemacs-on-windows-faq.txt>. To
|
|
|
388 discuss Windows-specific issues, subscribe to the mailing list at
|
|
|
389 <xemacs-nt-request@xemacs.org>.
|
|
|
390
|
|
|
391 ** XEmacs will now use `XEmacs' as its application class if it finds
|
|
|
392 any `XEmacs' resources in the resource database. Otherwise, it will
|
|
|
393 continue to use the `Emacs' class.
|
|
|
394
|
|
|
395 ** The options menu has been ported to Custom.
|
|
|
396 This means that each entry in the options menu acts as if you had customized
|
|
|
397 the corresponding variable by hand. ### WARNING: there is currently no
|
|
|
398 upgrading function to help you port your old options settings to the new
|
|
|
399 format. Consequently, if you want to modify the options for XEmacs 21, you
|
|
|
400 will have to set them all again through the menu, and remove the code loading
|
|
|
401 .xemacs-options from your .emacs.
|
|
|
402
|
|
|
403 ** When the Zmacs region is active, `M-x query-replace' and the other
|
|
|
404 replace commands now operate on the region contents only.
|
|
|
405
|
|
|
406 ** XEmacs now is able to choose X visuals and use private colormaps.
|
|
|
407 The '-visual <visualStr>' command line option or the '.EmacsVisual'
|
|
|
408 Xresource controls which visual XEmacs will use, and
|
|
|
409 '-privateColormap' or '.privateColormap' will force XEmacs to create a
|
|
|
410 private colormap for use. The syntax for the visual string is
|
|
|
411 "<visual><bitdepth>" where <visual> is one of 'StaticColor',
|
|
|
412 'TrueColor', 'GrayScale', 'PseudoColor' or 'DirectColor' and
|
|
|
413 <bitdepth> is the appropriate number of bits per pixel. If an invalid
|
|
|
414 or non-supported combination is entered, XEmacs attempts to find a happy
|
|
|
415 medium. The X creation mechanism will then determine if it needs to
|
|
|
416 create a colormap for use, or the presence of the private flags will
|
|
|
417 force it to create it.
|
|
|
418
|
|
|
419 ** The `imenu' package has been ported to XEmacs and is available as a
|
|
|
420 package.
|
|
|
421
|
|
|
422 ** `echo-keystrokes' can now be a floating-point number, so that you
|
|
|
423 can set it to intervals shorter than one second.
|
|
|
424
|
|
|
425 (setq echo-keystrokes 0.1)
|
|
|
426
|
|
|
427 ** The new command `center-to-window-line' works like `recenter'
|
|
|
428 (bound to `C-l'), only it does not redisplay the whole display area.
|
|
|
429
|
|
|
430 ** The M-. command will now first search through exact tags matches,
|
|
|
431 and then through inexact matches, as one would expect.
|
|
|
432
|
|
|
433 ** The new variable `user-full-name' can be used to customize one's
|
|
|
434 name when using the Emacs mail and news reading facilities.
|
|
|
435
|
|
|
436 Normally, `user-full-name' is a function that returns the full name of
|
|
|
437 a user or UID, as specified by the system -- for instance,
|
|
|
438 (user-full-name "root") returns something like "Super-User". However,
|
|
|
439 when the function is called without arguments, it will return the
|
|
|
440 value of the `user-full-name' variable. The `user-full-name' variable
|
|
|
441 is initialized using the environment variable NAME and (failing that)
|
|
|
442 the user's system name.
|
|
|
443
|
|
|
444 The behavior of the `user-full-name' function with an argument
|
|
|
445 specified is unchanged.
|
|
|
446
|
|
|
447 ** The new command `M-x customize-changed-options' lets you customize
|
|
|
448 all the options whose default values have changed in recent Emacs
|
|
|
449 versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as argument,
|
|
|
450 and the command creates a customization buffer showing all the
|
|
|
451 customizable options whose default values were changed since that
|
|
|
452 version.
|
|
|
453
|
|
|
454 If you don't specify a particular version number argument, then the
|
|
|
455 customization buffer shows all the customizable options for which
|
|
|
456 Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
|
|
|
457
|
|
|
458 ** The new command `add-log-convert' can be used to convert the
|
|
|
459 old-style (pre-20.3) ChangeLog buffers to new style, for
|
|
|
460 consistency. A reminder: if you wish to revert to old-style
|
|
|
461 ChangeLogs instead, customize the value of `add-log-time-format'
|
|
|
462 variable.
|
|
|
463
|
|
|
464 ** The new command `zap-up-to-char' is now available. It is similar
|
|
|
465 to `zap-to-char', except that it does not delete the searched-for
|
|
|
466 character. It is not bound to a key by default.
|
|
|
467
|
|
|
468 ** You can now store a number into a register with `C-u NUMBER C-x r n'
|
|
|
469 REG, increment it by INC with `C-u INC C-x r + REG' (to increment by
|
|
|
470 one, omit C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with `C-x r g REG'.
|
|
|
471 This is useful for writing keyboard macros.
|
|
|
472
|
|
|
473 ** The M-: command, when given a prefix argument, will now insert its
|
|
|
474 result to the current buffer.
|
|
|
475
|
|
|
476 ** The `C-h c' command, when given a prefix argument, will now insert
|
|
|
477 the message into the current buffer.
|
|
|
478
|
|
|
479 ** Horizontally split windows may now be dragged using the mouse.
|
|
|
480 Because of this, the dividers between vertical windows are always
|
|
|
481 visible. To turn it off, set `vertical-divider-always-visible-p' to
|
|
|
482 nil.
|
|
|
483
|
|
|
484 ** XEmacs/Mule (internationalization) changes.
|
|
|
485
|
|
|
486 *** Mule support now works on TTY's. Use `set-terminal-coding-system'
|
|
|
487 and `set-keyboard-coding-system' to specify the coding system of your
|
|
|
488 display and keyboard.
|
|
|
489
|
|
|
490 *** Egg/SJ3 input method is now officially supported. Quail and
|
|
|
491 Egg/Skk have been available through the generalized Leim since 20.3.
|
|
|
492
|
|
|
493 *** Localized Japanese menubars are available if XEmacs is built with
|
|
|
494 XFONTSET and either the X11 libraries are built with X_LOCALE defined
|
|
|
495 or the native C libraries support Japanese localization. This has
|
|
|
496 been available since 20.3, only it hasn't been announced before.
|
|
|
497
|
|
|
498 ** Jamie Zawinski's `gdb-highlight' extension is now distributed with
|
|
|
499 the `debug' package. gdb-highlight makes most objects printed in a
|
|
|
500 gdb buffer be mouse-sensitive: as text shows up in the buffer, it is
|
|
|
501 parsed, and objects which are recognized have context-sensitive
|
|
|
502 commands attached to them. To use it, add the following to `.emacs':
|
|
|
503
|
|
|
504 (add-hook 'gdb-mode-hook (lambda () (require 'gdb-highlight)))
|
|
|
505
|
|
|
506 ** The package popper.el is now included in the edit-utils package.
|
|
|
507 It has been greatly enhanced with respect to the one once included
|
|
|
508 with the ilisp package and should work well under XEmacs 21.0.
|
|
|
509
|
|
|
510 ** Gnuserv changes
|
|
|
511
|
|
|
512 *** Like the old 'gnudoit' program. Gnuclient -batch now can read from stdin.
|
|
|
513
|
|
|
514 *** Gnuclient -batch no longer breaks off the output at the first LF.
|
|
|
515
|
|
|
516 ** C mode changes
|
|
|
517
|
|
|
518 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
|
|
|
519 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
|
|
|
520 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
|
|
|
521 definition.
|
|
|
522
|
|
|
523 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
|
|
|
524 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable setings and customizations.
|
|
|
525 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu" style
|
|
|
526 is still the default however.
|
|
|
527
|
|
|
528 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
|
|
|
529
|
|
|
530 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
|
|
|
531 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
|
|
|
532 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
|
|
|
533
|
|
|
534 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
|
|
|
535 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
|
|
|
536
|
|
|
537 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
|
|
|
538 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
|
|
|
539
|
|
|
540 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
|
|
|
541 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
|
|
|
542
|
|
|
543 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
|
|
|
544 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
|
|
|
545
|
|
|
546 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
|
|
|
547 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
|
|
|
548 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
|
|
|
549 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
|
|
|
550
|
|
|
551 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
|
|
|
552 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
|
|
|
553 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
|
|
|
554 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this makes a
|
|
|
555 practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
|
|
|
556
|
|
|
557 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
|
|
|
558 and is an alias for it.
|
|
|
559
|
|
|
560 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
|
|
|
561 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
|
|
|
562
|
|
|
563 ** Changes to Gnus, the XEmacs newsreader.
|
|
|
564
|
|
|
565 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
|
|
|
566 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
|
|
|
567 Gnus manual for the full story.
|
|
|
568
|
|
|
569 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
|
|
|
570 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
|
|
|
571 group, which is created automatically.
|
|
|
572
|
|
|
573 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
|
|
|
574 values.
|
|
|
575
|
|
|
576 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
|
|
|
577
|
|
|
578 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
|
|
|
579 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
|
|
|
580
|
|
|
581 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
|
|
|
582 `C-u C-c C-c'.
|
|
|
583
|
|
|
584 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
|
|
|
585
|
|
|
586 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
|
|
|
587 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
|
|
|
588
|
|
|
589 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
|
|
|
590
|
|
|
591 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
|
|
|
592 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
|
|
|
593
|
|
|
594 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
|
|
|
595 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
|
|
|
596
|
|
|
597 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
|
|
|
598 control over simplification.
|
|
|
599
|
|
|
600 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
|
|
|
601
|
|
|
602 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
|
|
|
603 limit.
|
|
|
604
|
|
|
605 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
|
|
|
606
|
|
|
607 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
|
|
|
608
|
|
|
609 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
|
|
|
610 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
|
|
|
611 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
|
|
|
612
|
|
|
613 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
|
|
|
614 `a' forces normal posting method.
|
|
|
615
|
|
|
616 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
|
|
|
617 -- `W d'.
|
|
|
618
|
|
|
619 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
|
|
|
620 to a non-nil value.
|
|
|
621
|
|
|
622 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
|
|
|
623 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
|
|
|
624
|
|
|
625 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
|
|
|
626 has been added.
|
|
|
627
|
|
|
628 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
|
|
|
629
|
|
|
630 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
|
|
|
631
|
|
|
632 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
|
|
|
633 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
|
|
|
634
|
|
|
635 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
|
|
|
636 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
|
|
|
637
|
|
|
638 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
|
|
|
639
|
|
|
640 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
|
|
|
641 been added.
|
|
|
642
|
|
|
643 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
|
|
|
644 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
|
|
|
645
|
|
|
646 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
|
|
|
647 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
|
|
|
648
|
|
|
649 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
|
|
|
650
|
|
|
651 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
|
|
|
652
|
|
|
653 *** Byte-compilation of user-specs now works under XEmacs.
|
|
|
654
|
|
|
655 ** The `dir' files are no longer essential for functioning of the Info
|
|
|
656 subsystem. If the `dir' file does not exist in an Info directory, the
|
|
|
657 relevant information will be generated on-the-fly.
|
|
|
658
|
|
|
659 This behavior can be customized, look for `Info-auto-generate-directory'
|
|
|
660 and `Info-save-auto-generated-dir' in the `info' customization group.
|
|
|
661
|
|
|
662
|
|
|
663 * Lisp and internal changes in XEmacs 21.0
|
|
|
664 ==========================================
|
|
|
665
|
|
|
666 ** It is now possible to build XEmacs with support for 31-bit Lisp
|
|
|
667 integers (normally, Lisp integers are only 28 bits wide on 32-bit
|
|
|
668 machines.) Configure with --use-minimal-tagbits to test. With this
|
|
|
669 change, the maximum buffer size on 32-bit machines is increased from
|
|
|
670 128M to 1G. This setting will be made default in a future XEmacs
|
|
|
671 version.
|
|
|
672
|
|
|
673 ** Specifier changes.
|
|
|
674
|
|
|
675 *** When instantiating a specifier, the window locale now has a higher
|
|
|
676 precedence than the buffer locale. This is because the window locale
|
|
|
677 is more specific than the buffer locale.
|
|
|
678
|
|
|
679 *** The new macro `let-specifier' can be used to temporarily add
|
|
|
680 specifications to specifiers. See the documentation for details.
|
|
|
681
|
|
|
682 *** The new specifiers `vertical-scrollbar-visible-p' and
|
|
|
683 `horizontal-scrollbar-visible-p' may be used to control scrollbar
|
|
|
684 visibility. Previously, the only way to remove a scrollbar was to set
|
|
|
685 its size to 0. This method is still supported for backward
|
|
|
686 compatibility.
|
|
|
687
|
|
|
688 *** The new specifiers `scrollbar-on-left-p' and `scrollbar-on-top-p'
|
|
|
689 may be used to control the position of the vertical and horizontal
|
|
|
690 toolbar. Previously, their position could be changed only through the
|
|
|
691 use of X resources.
|
|
|
692
|
|
|
693 *** The new draggable vertical dividers between windows may be turned
|
|
|
694 off using the `vertical-divider-always-visible-p' specifier. When
|
|
|
695 this is set to nil, the vertical dividers between windows are shown
|
|
|
696 only when needed, and they are not draggable.
|
|
|
697
|
|
|
698 Other properties of the vertical dividers may be controlled using
|
|
|
699 `vertical-divider-shadow-thickness', `vertical-divider-line-width' and
|
|
|
700 `vertical-divider-spacing' specifiers, which see.
|
|
|
701
|
|
|
702 ** Frame focus management changes.
|
|
|
703
|
|
|
704 *** When the variable focus-follows-mouse is non-nil, `select-frame'
|
|
|
705 no longer permanently selects a different frame. The frame selection
|
|
|
706 is temporary and is reverted when the current command terminates, much
|
|
|
707 like the buffer selected by `set-buffer'. This is the same as in FSF
|
|
|
708 Emacs.
|
|
|
709
|
|
|
710 *** The new function `focus-frame' sets the window system focus to
|
|
|
711 FRAME (and selects it), regardless of the value of
|
|
|
712 `focus-follows-mouse'. Doing this is not well behaved, so be
|
|
|
713 absolutely sure that you want this.
|
|
|
714
|
|
|
715 The code that uses `select-frame' only to get the window manager focus
|
|
|
716 should be changed to use `set-frame-focus' instead, so that they keep
|
|
|
717 working when `focus-follows-mouse' is non-nil.
|
|
|
718
|
|
|
719 *** The special forms `save-selected-frame' and `with-selected-frame'
|
|
|
720 can now be used to temporarily change selected frame.
|
|
|
721
|
|
|
722 *** The behavior of `other-frame' command (`C-x 5 o') is unaffected by
|
|
|
723 these changes.
|
|
|
724
|
|
|
725 ** The function `select-window' now has an optional second argument
|
|
|
726 NORECORD which if non-nil inhibits the recording of a buffer change.
|
|
|
727
|
|
|
728 ** The function `vertical-motion' now correctly handles the second,
|
|
|
729 optional WINDOW argument. A new third argument PIXELS, if non-nil,
|
|
|
730 indicates that the returned motion should be in pixels.
|
|
|
731
|
|
|
732 ** The new function `vertical-motion-pixels' is similar to
|
|
|
733 vertical-motion but takes as input a vertical motion in pixels.
|
|
|
734
|
|
|
735 ** The new functions window-text-area-pixel-{width,height,edges} can
|
|
|
736 be used to obtain information about the text-displaying area of a
|
|
|
737 window.
|
|
|
738
|
|
|
739 ** The new functions `shrink-window-pixels' and `enlarge-window-pixels'
|
|
|
740 can be used to adjust the size of a window by a pixel amount.
|
|
|
741
|
|
|
742 ** The new function `window-displayed-text-pixel-height' can be used
|
|
|
743 to determine the height of the text actually displayed in a window.
|
|
|
744
|
|
|
745 ** The arithmetic comparison functions <, >, =, /= now accept a
|
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|
746 variable number of arguments.
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|
747
|
|
|
748 This means that if you want to test whether A < B < C, you can write
|
|
|
749 it as (< A B C) instead of (and (< A B) (< B C)). Likewise,
|
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|
750 (apply #'> LIST) now tests if LIST is monotonously increasing -- and
|
|
|
751 so on.
|
|
|
752
|
|
|
753 ** The XEmacs hashtables now have a consistent read/print syntax.
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|
754 This means that a hashtable will be readably printed in a
|
|
|
755 structure-like form:
|
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|
756
|
|
|
757 #s(hashtable size 2 data (key1 value1 key2 value2))
|
|
|
758
|
|
|
759 When XEmacs reads this form, it will create a new hashtable according
|
|
|
760 to description. This allows you to easily dump hashtables to files
|
|
|
761 using `prin1', and read them back in using `read'.
|
|
|
762
|
|
|
763 If `print-readably' is non-nil, a more relaxed syntax is used; for
|
|
|
764 instance:
|
|
|
765
|
|
|
766 #<hashtable size 2/13 data (key1 value1 key2 value2) 0x874d>
|
|
|
767
|
|
|
768 ** It is now possible to build XEmacs with LDAP support.
|
|
|
769 You will need to install a LDAP library first. The following have
|
|
|
770 been tested:
|
|
|
771 - LDAP 3.3 from the University of Michigan
|
|
|
772 (get it from <URL:http://www.umich.edu/~dirsvcs/ldap/>)
|
|
|
773 - OpenLDAP 1.0.3 from the OpenLDAP Foundation
|
|
|
774 (get it from <URL:http://www.openldap.org/>)
|
|
|
775 - LDAP SDK 1.0 from Netscape Corp.
|
|
|
776 (get it from <URL:http://developer.netscape.com/>)
|
|
|
777
|
|
|
778 ** When profiling is in effect, a call-count of all recorded functions
|
|
|
779 is now calculated. This information is stored in
|
|
|
780 `call-count-profile-table', and is utilized by `profile-results' as
|
|
|
781 well as the new command `profile-call-count-results'.
|
|
|
782
|
|
|
783 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
|
|
|
784 starts with a colon, if it is interned in the standard obarray.
|
|
|
785
|
|
|
786 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
|
|
|
787 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
|
|
|
788 support pre-19.12 XEmacs and pre-20 GNU Emacs by explicitly setting
|
|
|
789 these variables to themselves.
|
|
|
790
|
|
|
791 ** The `concat' function no longer accepts integer arguments.
|
|
|
792
|
|
|
793 ** The new function `string' concatenates all its argument characters
|
|
|
794 and returns the resulting string. This is consistent with other
|
|
|
795 functions, like `list', `vector', etc.
|
|
|
796
|
|
|
797 ** The function `temp-directory' is now available to return the
|
|
|
798 directory to store temporary files. On Unix this will be obtained
|
|
|
799 from TMPDIR, defaulting to `/tmp'.
|
|
|
800
|
|
|
801 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
|
|
|
802 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
|
|
|
803 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
|
|
|
804
|
|
|
805 ** The `make-event' function now supports the TYPE and PLIST
|
|
|
806 arguments, which can be used to create various events from Lisp. See
|
|
|
807 the documentation for details.
|
|
|
808
|
|
|
809 ** `function-interactive' is a new function that returns the
|
|
|
810 interactive specification of a funcallable object.
|
|
|
811
|
|
|
812 ** The new `lmessage' function allows printing of a formatted message
|
|
|
813 with a particular label.
|
|
|
814
|
|
|
815 (lmessage 'progress "Processing... %d" counter)
|
|
|
816
|
|
|
817 This function is more convenient than `display-message' because it
|
|
|
818 automatically applies `format' to its arguments.
|
|
|
819
|
|
|
820 ** The new `lwarn' function, analogous to `lmessage', allows printing
|
|
|
821 a formatted warning, with a non-default CLASS or LABEL.
|
|
|
822
|
|
|
823 ** The new function `split-path' can now be used to explode the
|
|
|
824 components of a colon-separated search path into a list.
|
|
|
825
|
|
|
826 (split-path "foo:bar")
|
|
|
827 => ("foo" "bar")
|
|
|
828
|
|
|
829 ** Specifiers and symbols whose value is a specifier are now allowed
|
|
|
830 as modeline specifications.
|
|
|
831
|
|
|
832 ** defcustom now accepts the keyword `:version'. Use this to specify
|
|
|
833 in which version of Emacs a certain variable's default value changed.
|
|
|
834 For example,
|
|
|
835
|
|
|
836 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
|
|
|
837 :type 'integer
|
|
|
838 :group 'foo
|
|
|
839 :version "21.0")
|
|
|
840
|
|
|
841 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options
|
|
|
842 command.
|
|
|
843
|
|
|
844 ** The line number tracking in modeline is now efficient, even for
|
|
|
845 very large buffers. This is achieved by caching the line numbers of
|
|
|
846 recent buffer positions, and reusing them. This cache is used only in
|
|
|
847 the buffers where `line-number-mode' is in effect.
|
|
|
848
|
|
|
849 ** When the new GNU Malloc aka Doug Lea Malloc is available, it will
|
|
|
850 be used. This should result in better performance on Linux systems
|
|
|
851 with libc6.
|
|
|
852
|
|
|
853 ** The code XEmacs uses to assemble its various paths into the
|
|
|
854 directory hierarchy has been rewritten to support the package system.
|
|
|
855 Look under "Startup Paths" in the Info documentation for more
|
|
|
856 information.
|
|
|
857
|
|
|
858 *** site-lisp is no longer part of the load-path by default.
|
|
|
859 Its use is deprecated, but you can specify --with-site-lisp=yes at the
|
|
|
860 configure command line to get it back.
|
|
|
861
|
|
|
862 *** `Info-default-directory-list' is now obsolete. If you want to
|
|
|
863 change the path which XEmacs uses to search for info files, set
|
|
|
864 `Info-directory-list' instead.
|
