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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 the changes in recent XEmacs versions. Primarily
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7 it documents user-visible (interface) changes, but also includes
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8 internal changes of possible interest to users. When describing new
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9 features, we also document ways of reverting to the old behavior,
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10 where applicable. If you dislike a recent change in how XEmacs
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11 behaves, you may find a remedy in this file.
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12
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13 Use `C-c C-f' to move to the next heading at the same level, and
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14 `C-c C-b' to move to the previous heading at this level. `C-h m' gives
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15 help on Outline mode. The menubar provides more commands.
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16
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17 Users who would like to know which capabilities have been introduced
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18 in each release should look at the appropriate section of this file.
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19 Starting with version 20.0, XEmacs includes ChangeLogs, which can be
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20 consulted for a more detailed list of changes.
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21
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22 N.B. The term "GNU Emacs" refers to any release of Emacs from the
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23 Free Software Foundation's GNU Project starting with Version 19.
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24 The term "XEmacs" refers to this program or sometimes to its
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25 predecessors "Era" and "Lucid Emacs". The predecessor of all these
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26 programs is called "Emacs 18". When no particular version is
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27 implied, "Emacs" will be used.
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28
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29
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30 * Changes in XEmacs 21.5
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31 ========================
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32
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33 ** Summary of user-visible changes:
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34
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35 -- Bignums have been implemented.
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36 -- Windows users have benefit of the full Win32 Unicode API.
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37 -- (in process) Xft provides antialiased fonts on X11.
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38 -- "XEmacs" used as X11 application class
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39
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40 ** Bignum implementation.
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41
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42 Integer computations no longer overflow, rational arithmetic "just
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43 works", and very precise floating point calculation is available.
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44 This also means that large buffers (over 2^30 = 1GB) can be
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45 manipulated.
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46
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47 ** "XEmacs" used as X11 application class
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48
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49 Previously, XEmacs checked the X11 resource database for resources starting
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50 with XEmacs, and used "XEmacs" as its application class if any existed;
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51 otherwise it used "Emacs", for backward compatibility. Because of
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52 divergence between the resources that GNU Emacs and XEmacs use, we've
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53 changed this. If you don't have the time to migrate your resource DB right
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54 now, set USE_EMACS_AS_DEFAULT_APPLICATION_CLASS in your environment before
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55 starting XEmacs, for the old behavior. This workaround will go away in the
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56 course of the next major release, though, so you will have to migrate your
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57 resources at some point.
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58
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59
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60 * Lisp and internal changes in XEmacs 21.5
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61 ==========================================
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62
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63 ** The ALLOW-NON-ASCII argument to event-to-character is not used.
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64
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65 While it is still accepted, for compatibilty with older code,
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66 event-to-character no longer takes note of this argument, since the specific
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67 type of mapping between characters and keysyms that it affected is no longer
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68 in place.
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69
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70 ** The set-charset-registry function is deprecated.
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71
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72 set-charset-registries replaces it; this function takes a vector of X11
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73 CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODINGs, and doesn't support regexp or XLFD
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74 wildcarding. It improves lookup performance (especially failures) for those
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75 X servers with large numbers of fonts.
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76
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77 ** define-specifier-tag now has an optional CHARSET-PREDICATE parameter.
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78
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79 This allows you to create specifier tags that match over Mule character sets
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80 when instantiating fonts, finally making it possible to explicitly set a
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81 font for a charset in given face with set-face-font.
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82
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83
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464
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84 * Changes in XEmacs 21.4
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85 ========================
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86
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479
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87 ** Summary of user-visible changes:
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88
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89 -- The delete key now deletes forward by default.
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90 -- Shifted motion keys now select text by default.
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91 -- You can now build XEmacs with support for GTK+ widget set.
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92 -- ~/.xemacs/init.el is now the preferred location for the init file.
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93 - XEmacs now supports a `~/.xemacs/init.el' startup file.
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94 - Custom file will move to ~/.xemacs/custom.el.
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95 -- Much-improved sample init.el, showing how to use many useful features.
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96 -- XEmacs support for menu accelerators has been much improved.
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97 -- Default menubar improvements.
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98 - Default menubar has many new commands and better organization.
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99 - The font-menu is now available under MS Windows.
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100 -- Dialog box improvements, including a real file dialog box.
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101 - XEmacs now has a proper file dialog box under MS Windows (and GTK)!
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102 - The old clunky file dialog box is improved.
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103 - Keyboard traversal now works correctly in MS Windows dialog boxes.
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104 - There is a Search dialog box available from Edit->Find...
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105 -- New buffer tabs.
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106 -- There is a new MS Windows installer, netinstall, ported from Cygwin.
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107 -- The subprocess quote-handling mechanism under Windows is much improved.
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108 -- Printing support now available under MS Windows.
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109 -- Selection improvements.
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110 - Kill and yank now interact with the clipboard under Windows.
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111 - MS Windows support for selection is now much more robust.
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112 - Motif selection support is now more correct (but slower).
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113 -- Mail spool locking now works correctly.
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114 -- International support changes.
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115 - The default coding-priority-list is now safer.
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116 - International keysyms are now supported under X.
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117 - MS Windows 1251 code page now supported.
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118 - Czech, Thai, Cyrillic-KOI8, Vietnamese, Ethiopic now supported.
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119 - Proper support for words in Latin 3 and Latin 4.
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120 -- Help buffers contain hyperlinks, and other changes.
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121 -- The modeline's text is now scrollable.
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122 -- The mouse wheel under MS Windows now functions correctly.
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123 -- Interactive searching and matching case improvements.
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124 - Incremental search will now highlight all visible matches.
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125 - Interactive searches always respect uppercase characters.
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126 -- Rectangle functions rewritten to avoid inserting extra spaces.
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127 -- New command `kill-entire-line' that always kills the entire line.
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128 -- Default values correctly stored in minibuffer histories.
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129 -- You can now create "indirect buffers", like in GNU Emacs.
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130 -- Pixel-based scrolling has been implemented.
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131 -- Operation progress can be displayed using graphical widgets.
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132 -- User names following a tilde can now be completed at file name prompts.
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133 -- XEmacs can now play sound using Enlightenment Sound Daemon (ESD).
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134 -- X-Face support is now available under MS Windows.
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135 -- The PostgreSQL Relational Database Management System is now supported.
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136 -- Indentation no longer indents comments that begin at column zero.
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137 -- Face and variable settings can have comments in Customize.
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138 -- New locations for early package hierarchies.
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139 -- The `auto-save' library has been greatly improved.
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140 -- New variable `mswindows-alt-by-itself-activates-menu'.
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141 -- Other init-file-related changes.
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142 - Init file in your home directory may be called `.emacs.el'.
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143 - New command-line switches -user-init-file and -user-init-directory.
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144 -- Etags changes.
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145 - In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
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146 - New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex.
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147 - New option --declarations, for C-type languages.
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148 - In C++, tags are created for "operator".
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149 - Ada now supported.
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150 - In Fortran, procedure is no longer tagged.
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151 - In Java, tags are created for "interface".
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152 - In Lisp, def-type constructs are now tagged.
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153 - In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables.
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154 - Python now supported.
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155 - New file extensions recognized: .ss, .pdb, .psw.
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156
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440
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157 ** The delete key now deletes forward by default.
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158
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159 This is regulated by the variable `delete-key-deletes-forward', which
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160 now defaults to t. `delete-key-deletes-forward' takes effect only on
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161 the systems that offer both a backspace and a delete key. If set to
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162 nil, the key labeled "Delete" will always delete backward. If set to
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163 non-nil, the "Delete" key will delete forward, except on keyboards
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164 where a "Backspace" key is not provided (e.g. old DEC keyboards).
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165
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166 Unless our implementation has bugs, the only reason why you would want
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167 to set `delete-key-deletes-forward' to nil is if you want to use the
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168 Delete key to delete backwards, despite the presence (according to
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169 Xlib) of a BackSpace key on the keyboard.
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170
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171 ** Shifted motion keys now select text by default.
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172
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173 You can turn this off by setting `shifted-motion-keys-select-region'
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174 to nil. This works based off of particular keys, not particular
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175 commands: Thus, the arrow keys will normally trigger selection when
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176 the Shift key is held down regardless of their bindings, and non-arrow
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177 keys with the same bindings (e.g. C-f) will not work this way. You
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178 can control which keys trigger shifted motion using
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179 `motion-keys-for-shifted-motion'. See also
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180 `unshifted-motion-keys-deselect-region'.
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181
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182 ** You can now build XEmacs with support for GTK+ widget set.
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183
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184 XEmacs built that way uses GTK+ to draw menubars, scrollbars, and
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185 other GUI components, as well GDK for drawing text, choosing fonts,
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186 allocating colors, etc. Additionally, GTK-XEmacs supports Lisp
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187 functions for writing your own GTK programs in Emacs Lisp!
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188
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189 To use this, build XEmacs with the `--with-gtk' configure flag. (Of
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190 course, you'll need to have the GTK+ libraries and header files on the
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191 system.) Gnome widgets and functionality are supported where
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192 available, and can be turned off.
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193
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194 ** ~/.xemacs/init.el is now the preferred location for the init file.
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195
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196 *** XEmacs now supports a `~/.xemacs/init.el' startup file.
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197 If it exists, XEmacs will prefer it over `.emacs' and `.emacs.el'.
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198 The file may be byte-compiled as `~/.xemacs/init.elc'.
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199
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200 If present, the `~/.xemacs/' directory may contain startup files for
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201 XEmacs packages that support it.
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202
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203 The first time you start up XEmacs, it will ask you if you would like
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204 to migrate your `.emacs' to the new location. (Your custom settings
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205 will also be moved, to `~/.xemacs/custom.el' -- see below.) If so, you
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206 will also be asked whether you would like to create a compatibility
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207 `.emacs' for backward compatibility with previous versions of XEmacs
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208 and with GNU Emacs. (This compatibility `.emacs' simply loads the new
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209 init and custom files.) Doing this is generally a good idea -- new
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210 versions of XEmacs will prefer `~/.xemacs/init.el' over `~/.emacs' in
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211 any case.
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212
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213 You can manually migrate at any time with `migrate-user-init-file',
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214 and undo any migration with `unmigrate-user-init-file'. The function
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215 `create-compatibility-dot-emacs' also lets you manually create a
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216 compatibility `.emacs'.
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217
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218 NOTE: Under MS Windows, your home directory (i.e. the directory named
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219 `~') is specified by the HOME environment variable, and defaults to
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220 C:\. To set this variable, modify AUTOEXEC.BAT under Windows 95/98,
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221 or select Control Panel->System->Advanced->Environment Variables...
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222 under Windows NT/2000.
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223
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224 *** Custom file will move to ~/.xemacs/custom.el.
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225
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226 Whereas customize settings were formerly stored in the regular init
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227 file, XEmacs now prefers them to be in a separate file
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228 `~/.xemacs/custom.el', completely under automatic control. This
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229 change goes with the migration of the init file, and XEmacs offers
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230 automatic migration upon startup.
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231
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232 ** Much-improved sample init.el, showing how to use many useful features.
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233
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234 The sample init file, located in the `etc/' directory of the XEmacs
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235 installation, has been renamed from `sample.emacs' to `sample.init.el',
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236 and pretty much rewritten from scratch. (You can view it by selecting
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237 the menu item Help->Samples->Sample init.el.) Many of the most-useful
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238 optional features in XEmacs have been enabled, and other features that
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239 are useful but may be annoying to some are present but commented out.
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240 There is also extensive documentation on how to add your own
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241 improvements to the init file and where to find more documentation
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242 elsewhere in XEmacs. The file has been specifically designed so that
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243 most people can simply make it their own init file by copying it to
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244 ~/.xemacs/init.el, and they will be satisfied with the results.
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245
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246 ** XEmacs support for menu accelerators has been much improved.
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247
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248 It now works properly under MS Windows, for example. To enable
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249 accelerators, set `menu-accelerator-enabled' to `menu-force'. Menus
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250 now have accelerators by default, currently on the first letter of the
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251 menu item unless another letter was indicated as the accelerator using
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252 %_ in the menu string. These %_ specifications are automatically
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253 removed when displaying the menu item, and are handled correctly in
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254 functions such as `normalize-menu-item-name'. Some auto-generated
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255 menus will have accelerators added dynamically, using numbers 1-9 and
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256 letters; to add this feature yourself, use the Lisp command
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257 `submenu-generate-accelerator-spec' in a menu filter. The feature
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258 `menu-accelerator-support' has been added so that packages can check
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259 whether this support exists.
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260
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261 ** Default menubar improvements.
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262
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263 *** Default menubar has many new commands and better organization.
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264
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265 The default menubar has been extensively reorganized. Many more
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266 commands are available, and they are more logically organized. The
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267 Options menu, in particular, has been significantly expanded, and almost
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268 everything on the new Cmds menu is new. (Much of the useful
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269 functionality from the `big-menubar' package has been imported.)
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270
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271 *** The font-menu is now available under MS Windows.
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272
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273 ** Dialog box improvements, including a real file dialog box.
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274
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275 *** XEmacs now has a proper file dialog box under MS Windows (and GTK)!
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276 This will appear whenever you select a menu item that requires a file
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277 as an argument.
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278
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279 *** The old clunky file dialog box is improved.
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280 The in-buffer file dialog box (visible on non-MS-Windows, non-GTK
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281 systems) is still clunky but has had many improvements to make it work
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282 significantly better.
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283
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284 *** Keyboard traversal now works correctly in MS Windows dialog boxes.
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285
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286 *** There is a Search dialog box available from Edit->Find...
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287 However, it's very experimental and needs a lot of work.
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288
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289 ** New buffer tabs.
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290
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291 You can now use buffer tabs to switch between buffers.
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292
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293 The tabs are located between the toolbar and the uppermost window, in
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294 a location called the "gutter". If you dislike the buffer tabs, you can
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295 disable them using the menu item `Options->Display->Buffers Tab Visible'
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296 by customizing `gutter-buffers-tab-visible-p', or by placing this in
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297 your .xemacs/init.el:
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298
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299 (custom-set-variables '(gutter-buffers-tab-visible-p nil))
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300
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301 You can change the location of the gutter using the menu item
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302 `Options->Display->Default Gutter Location' or with (e.g.)
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303
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304 (custom-set-variables '(default-gutter-position 'left))
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305
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306 However, currently only MS Windows supports tab widgets with
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307 orientations other than vertical, and it doesn't currently support
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308 gutters on the bottom of the frame.
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309
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310 ** There is a new MS Windows installer, netinstall, ported from Cygwin.
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311
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312 Nearly complete automation of the XEmacs install process from
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313 ftp.xemacs.org. Includes selection of Lisp packages to install, etc.
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314
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315 ** The subprocess quote-handling mechanism under Windows is much improved.
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316
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317 Specifically, the quote-handling mechanism has been completely rewritten,
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318 and you should now be able to use single or double quotes to quote arguments
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319 just like under Unix, and expect to get correct results regardless of the
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320 shell you are using (e.g. CMD.EXE, bash from Cygwin, etc.). For example,
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321 the following command:
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322
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323 M-x grep '<<<<<<<' *.c
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324
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325 should work as intended.
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326
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327 ** Printing support now available under MS Windows.
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328
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329 The File->Print... menu item pretty-prints using the standard MS
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330 Windows printing facilities. Unfortunately it's still rather
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331 experimental. There is a separate `msprinter' device tag for MS
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332 Windows printers, and so you can control the way that faces appear on
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333 the printer by using this tag to specify device-specific face
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334 settings.
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335
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336 ** Selection improvements.
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337
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338 *** Kill and yank now interact with the clipboard under Windows.
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339
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479
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340 This was done by changing the default value of `interprogram-cut-function'
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341 and `interprogram-paste-function'. You can get the old behavior by
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342 setting these to nil, and there is an option on the options menu to do
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343 this.
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344
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345 *** MS Windows support for selection is now much more robust.
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346
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347 Generally selection should now do what you would expect under
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348 MS Windows: the middle mouse button will paste your current selection
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349 or the clipboard; conversions from different types of selection to the
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350 clipboard can be made; the kill-ring and friends will be updated as
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351 per X.
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352
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353 The only thing selection doesn't do is set the clipboard automatically
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354 as this would break the MS Windows model. If you want this behavior
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355 then set `selection-sets-clipboard' to t.
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356
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357 *** Motif selection support is now more correct (but slower).
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358
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359 Changes have been made to allow correct operation of cut/copy/paste
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360 operations between native widgets and XEmacs buffers. However, this
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361 can lead to a lot of X traffic which slows down the performance of
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362 `C-k'. If you want the old behaviour then set
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363 `x-selection-strict-motif-ownership' to nil.
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364
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365 ** Mail spool locking now works correctly.
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366
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367 XEmacs has always come with a little auxiliary program, movemail,
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368 which moves mail out of the system's spool area into user storage. To
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369 coordinate between XEmacs, the mail delivery agent, and other mail
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370 user agents, movemail needs to properly lock the spool file before
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371 moving it. Movemail now correctly respects the --mail-locking option
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372 to configure. Moreover, movemail's locking behavior can be specified
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373 at run-time, via a new command-line option -m to movemail, or through
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374 the environment variable EMACSLOCKMETHOD.
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375
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376 When installing XEmacs, make sure you configure it according to your
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377 environment's mail spool locking conventions. When you're using a
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378 binary kit, set the `mail-lock-method' variable at startup, or the
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379 EMACSLOCKMETHOD environment variable.
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380
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381 ** International support changes.
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382
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383 *** The default coding-priority-list is now safer.
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384
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385 This means that if you have no language environment set, Mule no
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386 longer automatically recognizes ISO 2022 escapes in your files. This
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387 makes editing binary files safe.
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388
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389 *** International keysyms are now supported under X.
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390
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391 This means that XEmacs running under Mule will automatically recognize
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392 the keysym `scaron' to be the lower-case `s' with caron in the Latin 2
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393 character set. (Specifically, it will bind the keysym to
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394 `self-insert' and augment its `ascii-character' property.) This is
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395 very useful with XFree under European locales as shipped by recent
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396 Linux distributions. If XEmacs is compiled without Mule support, the
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397 feature still works, but it is unaware of different character sets --
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398 it unconditionally sets the `ascii-character' property to values in
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399 the [160, 256) range.
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442
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400
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479
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401 *** MS Windows 1251 code page now supported.
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402
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403 It's available as coding system `windows-1251'.
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404
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405 *** Czech, Thai, Cyrillic-KOI8, Vietnamese, Ethiopic now supported.
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406
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407 *** Proper support for words in Latin 3 and Latin 4.
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408
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409 The appropriate characters in Latin 3 and Latin 4 character sets are
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410 correctly defined as words.
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411
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412 ** Help buffers contain hyperlinks, and other changes.
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413
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414 The help buffers created by C-h commands now contain hyperlinks to
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415 other commands, functions and variables mentioned in the documentation.
|
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416 Use button2 to follow a link. Use button3 to bring up a context menu
|
|
417 that lets you follow the link, find the source for the item, do a tag
|
|
418 search, etc. The buffers are also syntax-highlighted.
|
|
419
|
|
420 Help functions (e.g. `C-h f') now know how to print macro argument
|
|
421 lists. If your macro definition included an argument list for the sake
|
|
422 of help output, you no longer need to do that.
|
|
423
|
|
424 ** The modeline's text is now scrollable.
|
|
425
|
|
426 This is controlled by the variable `modeline-scrolling-method', which
|
|
427 you need to set to a non-nil value. You can also choose scrolling
|
|
428 types; see the docstring of `modeline-scrolling-method' for more
|
|
429 information.
|
|
430
|
|
431 ** The mouse wheel under MS Windows now functions correctly.
|
|
432
|
|
433 It scrolls the XEmacs window under the pointer, not the selected
|
|
434 window.
|
442
|
435
|
428
|
436 ** Interactive searching and matching case improvements.
|
|
437
|
479
|
438 *** Incremental search will now highlight all visible matches.
|
|
439
|
|
440 This makes it easier to anticipate where consecutive C-s or C-r will
|
|
441 place the point. If you want to disable the feature, set
|
|
442 `isearch-highlight-all-matches' to nil.
|
|
443
|
|
444 *** Interactive searches always respect uppercase characters.
|
|
445
|
|
446 Case sensitiveness in searching operations is normally controlled
|
|
447 by the variable `case-fold-search' (if non-nil, case is ignored while
|
428
|
448 searching). This mechanism has now been slightly improved for
|
|
449 interactive searches: if the search string (or regexp) contains
|
|
450 uppercase characters, the searching is forced to be case-sensitive,
|
|
451 `case-fold-search'.
|
|
452
|
|
453 The new behavior affects all functions performing interactive
|
|
454 searches, like `zap-to-char', `list-matching-lines', `tags-search'
|
|
455 etc. The incremental search facility has always behaved that way.
|
|
456
|
479
|
457 ** Rectangle functions rewritten to avoid inserting extra spaces.
|
442
|
458
|
479
|
459 The rectangle functions have been almost completely rewritten in
|
428
|
460 order to avoid inserting undesirable spaces, notably at the end of
|
|
461 lines. Two typical examples of the old behavior were
|
|
462 `string-rectangle', which filled all lines up to the right side of the
|
|
463 rectangle, and `clear-rectangle', which filled even empty lines up to
|
|
464 the left side. All functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting
|
|
465 unwanted spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the
|
|
466 old way.
|
|
467
|
442
|
468 Also, the behavior of `string-rectangle' is now compliant with
|
|
469 `pending-delete-mode': if this mode is active, then the string
|
|
470 replaces the region rectangle. Otherwise, the command does not delete
|
|
471 or overwrite any existing text. For those who want that feature but do
|
|
472 not use pending-delete-mode, a new function, `replace-rectangle', is
|
686
|
473 available, and bound to `C-x r p'.
|
442
|
474
|
428
|
475 As a side effect, the FORCE argument to `move-to-column' now
|
|
476 understands the special value `coerce', which means that the line
|
|
477 should not be filled if it is too short to reach the desired column.
|
|
478
|
479
|
479 ** New command `kill-entire-line' that always kills the entire line.
|
|
480
|
|
481 This kills the entire line at point, regardless of whether the point
|
|
482 is at the beginning of line, and regardless of the setting of
|
|
483 `kill-whole-line'.
|
|
484
|
|
485 ** Default values correctly stored in minibuffer histories.
|
428
|
486
|
479
|
487 When you press RET at a minibuffer prompt that provides a default
|
|
488 value, the value is stored in history instead of an empty line. Also,
|
|
489 you can now edit the default value by pressing the down arrow,
|
|
490 accessing the logical "future" value. Not all minibuffer prompts have
|
|
491 yet been converted to support this feature.
|
428
|
492
|
479
|
493 ** You can now create "indirect buffers", like in GNU Emacs.
|
|
494
|
|
495 An indirect buffer shares its text with another buffer ("base
|
|
496 buffer"), but has its own major mode, local variables, extents, and
|
|
497 narrowing. An indirect buffer has a name of its own, distinct from
|
|
498 those of the base buffer and all other buffers. An indirect buffer
|
|
499 cannot itself be visiting a file (though its base buffer can be).
|
|
500 The base buffer cannot itself be indirect.
|
428
|
501
|
|
502 Use (make-indirect-buffer BASE-BUFFER NAME) to make an indirect buffer
|
|
503 named NAME whose base is BASE-BUFFER. If BASE-BUFFER is itself an
|
|
504 indirect buffer, its base buffer is used as the base for the new
|
|
505 buffer.
|
|
506
|
|
507 You can make an indirect buffer current, or switch to it in a window,
|
|
508 just as you would a non-indirect buffer.
|
|
509
|
|
510 The function `buffer-base-buffer' returns a buffer's base buffer or
|
|
511 nil, if given an ordinary (non-indirect) buffer. The function
|
|
512 `buffer-indirect-children' returns a list of the indirect children of
|
|
513 a base buffer.
|
|
514
|
479
|
515 ** Pixel-based scrolling has been implemented.
|
|
516 By default this will attempt to scroll in increments equal to the
|
|
517 height of the default face. Set `window-pixel-scroll-increment' to
|
|
518 modify this behavior.
|
|
519
|
|
520 ** Operation progress can be displayed using graphical widgets.
|
|
521 See `progress-feedback' for details. This support has been switched
|
|
522 on by default for font-lock and some web browsing functions. If you
|
|
523 do not like this behavior, set `progress-feedback-use-echo-area' to
|
|
524 nil.
|
|
525
|
|
526 ** User names following a tilde can now be completed at file name prompts.
|
|
527 e.g. `C-x C-f ~hni<TAB>' will complete to `~hniksic/'. To make this
|
|
528 operation faster, a cache of user names is maintained internally.
|
428
|
529
|
|
530 The new primitives available for this purpose are functions named
|
|
531 `user-name-completion' and `user-name-all-completions'.
|
|
532
|
|
533 ** XEmacs can now play sound using Enlightenment Sound Daemon (ESD).
|
|
534 It will try NAS first, then ESD, then playing native sound directly.
|
|
535
|
479
|
536 ** X-Face support is now available under MS Windows.
|
|
537 If an X-Face library built under MS Windows is available then XEmacs
|
428
|
538 will use this at build time.
|
|
539
|
479
|
540 ** The PostgreSQL Relational Database Management System is now supported.
|
|
541 It is now possible to build XEmacs so that the programming interface
|
|
542 to the PostgreSQL RDBMS (libpq) is available in XEmacs Lisp.
|
|
543 Supported versions of PostgreSQL are 6.5.3 (earlier versions may work,
|
|
544 but have not been tested) and 7.0-beta1.
|
438
|
545
|
464
|
546 ** Indentation no longer indents comments that begin at column zero.
|
|
547 This makes it easy to deal with commented out regions of code.
|
|
548
|
479
|
549 ** Face and variable settings can have comments in Customize.
|
|
550 Customize now supports adding comments about your face and variable
|
|
551 settings using a new menu entry. Comments for variables can also be
|
|
552 assigned by calling `customize-set-(value|variable)' with a prefix
|
|
553 argument.
|
|
554
|
|
555 ** New locations for early package hierarchies.
|
|
556 XEmacs now locates the early package hierarchies at
|
|
557 ~/.xemacs/mule-packages/ and ~/.xemacs/xemacs-packages/. Previously,
|
|
558 the early packages were located in ~/.xemacs/.
|
464
|
559
|
479
|
560 ** The `auto-save' library has been greatly improved.
|
|
561 (This lets you group all your auto-save files into one directory, and
|
|
562 is provided standardly with XEmacs. See `etc/sample.init.el',
|
|
563 available on the Help menu, for more info on how to set it up.)
|
|
564 Specifically, it now works under MS Windows, and it uses a completely
|
|
565 reversible encoding (basically quoted-printable), so that all
|
|
566 filenames (as well as non-filename buffers) are successfully handled
|
|
567 regardless of any special characters in their names.
|
464
|
568
|
479
|
569 ** New variable `mswindows-alt-by-itself-activates-menu'.
|
|
570 If you set this variable to nil then pressing and releasing the Alt
|
|
571 key under MS Windows will no longer activate the menubar. The default
|
|
572 is t. This is not to be confused with `menu-accelerator-enabled',
|
|
573 which enables the use of Alt+<Letter> accelerators to invoke the
|
|
574 menus.
|
|
575
|
|
576 ** Other init-file-related changes.
|
464
|
577
|
|
578 *** Init file in your home directory may be called `.emacs.el'.
|
442
|
579
|
464
|
580 Like in GNU Emacs 20.4 and on, you can now name the XEmacs init file
|
|
581 located in your home directory `.emacs.el'. Formerly the name had to
|
|
582 be `.emacs'. If you use the name `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile
|
|
583 the file in the usual way.
|
|
584
|
|
585 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file is the one
|
|
586 that is used.
|
442
|
587
|
464
|
588 *** New command-line switches -user-init-file and -user-init-directory.
|
479
|
589
|
464
|
590 These can be used to specify alternate locations for what is normally
|
|
591 ~/.emacs and ~/.xemacs.
|
442
|
592
|
464
|
593 Moreover, the `-user <user>' command-line option (which used to only
|
|
594 work in unpredictable ways) is now equivalent to `-user-init-file
|
|
595 ~<user>/.xemacs/init.el -user-init-directory ~<user>/.xemacs', or
|
|
596 `-user-init-file ~<user>/.emacs -user-init-directory ~<user>/.xemacs',
|
|
597 whichever init file comes first.
|
|
598
|
428
|
599 ** Etags changes.
|
|
600
|
|
601 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
|
|
602
|
479
|
603 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex.
|
|
604 It is now possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the
|
|
605 regexp with {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags
|
|
606 --help' prints out. This feature is useful especially for regex
|
|
607 files, where each line contains a regular expression. The manual
|
|
608 contains details.
|
428
|
609
|
479
|
610 *** New option --declarations, for C-type languages.
|
|
611 In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
|
428
|
612 declarations when given the --declarations option.
|
|
613
|
479
|
614 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator".
|
|
615 The tags have the form "operator+", without spaces between the
|
|
616 keyword and the operator.
|
428
|
617
|
479
|
618 *** Ada now supported.
|
|
619 Tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and types.
|
428
|
620
|
464
|
621 *** In Fortran, procedure is no longer tagged.
|
428
|
622
|
|
623 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
|
|
624
|
479
|
625 *** In Lisp, def-type constructs are now tagged.
|
|
626 This includes "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs.
|
|
627
|
|
628 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables.
|
|
629 my and local variables are tagged.
|
428
|
630
|
479
|
631 *** Python now supported.
|
|
632 def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
|
428
|
633
|
479
|
634 *** New file extensions recognized: .ss, .pdb, .psw.
|
|
635 .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
|
428
|
636 for PSWrap.
|
|
637
|
|
638
|
464
|
639 * Lisp and internal changes in XEmacs 21.4
|
428
|
640 ==========================================
|
|
641
|
440
|
642 ** A new portable dumper is available for beta testing.
|
430
|
643
|
|
644 Olivier Galibert has written a portable dumper for XEmacs, based on
|
464
|
645 initial work by Kyle Jones. To perform even the most basic editor,
|
|
646 XEmacs requires some amount of Lisp code to be loaded. To avoid
|
|
647 repeating the expensive loading process at every startup, XEmacs is
|
|
648 built in a special way. Its C sources link into an executable called
|
|
649 `temacs', which loads the bootstrap Lisp code and uses a special
|
|
650 "unexec" call to dump the resulting memory image into a proper
|
|
651 `xemacs' executable on disk. The unexec() process is hard to
|
432
|
652 implement correctly and makes XEmacs very hard to port to new
|
|
653 operating systems, or even to new releases of old systems.
|
430
|
654
|
464
|
655 The new portable dumper uses a different approach to dumping: instead
|
|
656 of dumping full-fledged executable, it only dumps out the initialized
|
430
|
657 data structures (both Lisp and C) into an external file. A normally
|
464
|
658 running XEmacs only needs to mmap that file and relocate a bit to get
|
|
659 to the initialized data. In that scheme, there is no difference
|
430
|
660 between `temacs' and `xemacs'.
|
|
661
|
464
|
662 Unfortunately, the portable dumper has not been completely finished
|
|
663 for this release, and will not be used by default. However, if you
|
|
664 wish to experiment with it, or if you need to compile XEmacs on a new
|
|
665 and unsupported platform, you can test it by configuring XEmacs with
|
|
666 `--pdump' flag.
|
440
|
667
|
428
|
668 ** Much effort has been invested to make XEmacs Lisp faster:
|
|
669
|
|
670 *** Many basic lisp operations are now faster.
|
|
671 This is especially the case when running a Mule-enabled XEmacs.
|
|
672
|
|
673 A general overhaul of the lisp engine should produce a speedup of 1.4
|
464
|
674 in a non-Mule XEmacs, and 2.1 in a Mule XEmacs. These numbers were
|
428
|
675 obtained running `(byte-compile "simple.el")', which should be a
|
|
676 pretty typical test of "pure" Lisp.
|
|
677
|
|
678 *** Lisp hash tables have been re-implemented. The Common Lisp style
|
|
679 hash table interface has been made standard, and moved from cl.el into
|
|
680 fast C code (See the section on hash tables in the XEmacs Lisp
|
|
681 Reference). A speedup factor of 3 can be expected with code that
|
|
682 makes intensive use of hash tables.
|
|
683
|
|
684 *** The garbage collector has been tuned, leading to a speedup of
|
|
685 1.16.
|
|
686
|
464
|
687 *** The byte-compiler and the byte-optimizer have been tuned to
|
|
688 produce better code in many small ways.
|
|
689
|
428
|
690 *** The family of functions that iterate over lists, like `memq', and
|
|
691 `rassq', have been made a little faster (typically 1.3).
|
|
692
|
|
693 *** Lisp function calls are faster, by approximately a factor of two.
|
|
694 However, defining inline functions (via defsubst) still makes sense
|
|
695 for tight loops.
|
|
696
|
|
697 *** Finally, a few functions have had dramatic performance
|
|
698 improvements. For example, `(last long-list)' is now 30 times faster.
|
|
699
|
|
700 Of course, your mileage will vary.
|
|
701
|
|
702 Many operations do not see any improvement. Surprisingly, running
|
|
703 (font-lock-fontify-buffer) does not use the Lisp engine much at all.
|
|
704 Speeding up your favorite slow operation is an excellent project to
|
|
705 improve XEmacs. Don't forget to profile!
|
|
706
|
430
|
707 ** Native widgets can be displayed in buffers.
|
|
708
|
|
709 The glyph system has been extended to allow the display of glyphs that
|
|
710 are implemented as native window-system widgets. Thus you can embed
|
|
711 buttons, scrollbars, combo boxes, edit fields and progress gauges in a
|
|
712 buffer. As a side effect subwindow support now works once again.
|
|
713
|
440
|
714 All of this is still fairly experimental and there is no
|
442
|
715 documentation. The current APIs might change in a future version of
|
479
|
716 XEmacs. Some widgets are only available under MS Windows. See the
|
440
|
717 file glyphs-test.el in the XEmacs src distribution for examples of
|
|
718 usage.
|
430
|
719
|
440
|
720 The buffers-tab functionality and progress gauge have been implemented
|
|
721 using this feature.
|
430
|
722
|
464
|
723 ** Case translation now supports international characters.
|
|
724
|
|
725 *** Instead of being lists of 256-character strings, case tables are
|
|
726 now opaque objects. The interface to access them is almost the same,
|
|
727 except it now works for international characters, and you can set the
|
|
728 case pairs using `put-case-table-pair'. `set-case-table' and friends
|
|
729 still support the old list/string based interface for backward
|
|
730 compatibility.
|
|
731
|
|
732 *** As a consequence of this change, functions `downcase' and `upcase'
|
|
733 as well as all the case-transformation commands now work with
|
|
734 non-ASCII characters. Built-in tables cover all the Latin character
|
|
735 sets that we support. If your language has a distinction between
|
|
736 upper and lower case that is not handled by XEmacs/Mule, please let us
|
|
737 know.
|
|
738
|
|
739 *** The code that implements case-insensitive search has been modified
|
|
740 to respect the case table settings. This also applies to regexp
|
|
741 search.
|
|
742
|
479
|
743 ** Syntax tables may now be specified for a part of a buffer by
|
|
744 attaching the `syntax-table' property to an extent. For compatibility
|
|
745 with GNU Emacs, you may use the text-property interface to achieve the
|
|
746 same result.
|
|
747
|
464
|
748 ** Values of variables `user-init-file' and `user-init-directory' are
|
|
749 now absolute file/directory names. Previously, both variables used to
|
|
750 be relative to `(concat "~" init-file-user)'. This turned out to be
|
|
751 too complicated for most packages (and some core Lisp files) to use
|
|
752 correctly. Also, the `init-file-user' variable has been obsoleted in
|
|
753 the process.
|
440
|
754
|
442
|
755 The user-visible options like `-u' have not changed their behavior.
|
430
|
756
|
428
|
757 ** XEmacs finally has an automated test suite!
|
|
758 Although this is not yet very sophisticated, it is already responsible
|
|
759 for several important bug fixes in XEmacs. To try it out, simply use
|
|
760 the makefile target `make check' after building XEmacs.
|
|
761
|
|
762 ** Hash tables have been reimplemented.
|
|
763 As was pointed out above, the standard interface to hash tables is now
|
|
764 the Common Lisp interface, as described in Common Lisp, the Language
|
|
765 (CLtL2, by Steele). The older interface (functions with names
|
|
766 containing the phrase `hashtable') will continue to work, but the
|
|
767 preferred interface now has names containing the phrase `hash-table'.
|
|
768
|
|
769 Here's the executive overview: create hash tables using
|
|
770 make-hash-table, and use gethash, puthash, remhash, maphash and
|
|
771 clrhash to manipulate entries in the hash table. See the (updated)
|
|
772 Lisp Reference Manual for details.
|
|
773
|
|
774 ** Lisp code handles circular lists much more robustly.
|
|
775 Many basic lisp functions used to loop forever when given a circular
|
|
776 list, expecting you to C-g (quit) out of the loop. Now this is more
|
|
777 likely to trigger a `circular-list' error. Printing a circular list
|
|
778 now results in something like this:
|
|
779
|
|
780 (let ((x (cons 'foo 'foo)))
|
|
781 (setcdr x x)
|
|
782 x)
|
|
783 => (foo ... <circular list>)
|
|
784
|
|
785 An extra bonus is that checking for circularities is not just
|
|
786 friendlier, but actually faster than checking for C-g.
|
|
787
|
430
|
788 ** Functions for decoding base64 encoding are now available; see
|
|
789 `base64-encode-region', `base64-encode-string', `base64-decode-region'
|
|
790 and `base64-decode-string'.
|
428
|
791
|
440
|
792 ** The functions `read-string', `read-expression', `eval-minibuffer',
|
|
793 `read-variable', `read-command', `read-function', `read-number',
|
|
794 `read-shell-command', `read-from-minibuffer', and `completing-read'
|
|
795 now take an additional argument which specifies the default value. If
|
|
796 this argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used
|
|
797 in two ways:
|
|
798
|
464
|
799 * It is returned if the user enters empty input.
|
|
800 * It is available as the logical "future" entry, by pressing the down
|
|
801 arrow.
|
440
|
802
|
|
803 ** LDAP changes.
|
|
804
|
|
805 *** The LDAP interface now consists of two layers, a low-level layer
|
|
806 that closely matches the LDAP C API, and a more convenient
|
|
807 higher-level set of functions.
|
|
808
|
|
809 *** The low-level functions that used to be named *-internal are now
|
|
810 named more simply: `ldap-open', `ldap-close', `ldap-search-basic',
|
|
811 `ldap-add', and `ldap-modify'. They should be used directly for very
|
|
812 specific purposes (such as multiple operations on a connection) only.
|
|
813
|
|
814 *** The higher-level functions provide a more convenient way to access
|
|
815 LDAP directories hiding the subtleties of handling the connection,
|
|
816 translating arguments and ensuring compliance with LDAP
|
|
817 internationalization rules and formats (currently partly implemented
|
|
818 only.) This layer provides atomic operations for searches,
|
|
819 modification, addition and deletion of multiple entries at once:
|
|
820 `ldap-search-entries', `ldap-add-entries', `ldap-delete-entries', and
|
|
821 `ldap-modify-entries'.
|
|
822
|
|
823 *** To maintain compatibility with previous code, the now obsolete
|
|
824 function `ldap-search' is now merely a wrapper that calls either
|
|
825 `ldap-search-basic' or `ldap-search-entries'. Please don't use the
|
|
826 `ldap-search' function in your new programs -- a direct call to one of
|
|
827 the two replacements is more efficient and unambiguous.
|
|
828
|
430
|
829 ** The arguments to `locate-file' are now more Lisp-like. As before,
|
|
830 the usage is:
|
428
|
831
|
|
832 (locate-file FILENAME PATH-LIST &optional SUFFIXES MODE)
|
|
833
|
|
834 Except that SUFFIXES are now a list of strings instead of a single,
|
|
835 colon-separated string. MODE is now a symbol or a list of symbols
|
|
836 (symbols `exists', `executable', `writable', and `readable' are
|
|
837 supported) instead of an integer code. See the documentation for
|
|
838 details. Of course, the old form is still accepted for backward
|
|
839 compatibility.
|
|
840
|
|
841 Several bugs in locate-file have been fixed, most notably its failure
|
|
842 to call expand-file-name on elements of PATH-LIST. Because of that
|
|
843 elements of load-path of the form "~/..." used to not work.
|
|
844 locate-file is now guaranteed to expand files during its course of
|
|
845 operation.
|
|
846
|
|
847 ** `translate-region' has been improved in several ways. Its TABLE
|
|
848 argument used to be a 256-character string. In addition to this, it
|
|
849 can now also be a vector or a char-table, which makes the function
|
464
|
850 useful for Mule, which it wasn't. If TABLE is a vector or a generic
|
428
|
851 char-table, you can map characters to strings instead of to other
|
|
852 characters. For instance:
|
|
853
|
|
854 (let ((table (make-char-table 'generic)))
|
|
855 (put-char-table ?a "the letter a" table)
|
|
856 (put-char-table ?b "" table)
|
|
857 (put-char-table ?c ?\n table)
|
|
858 (translate-region (point-min) (point-max) table))
|
|
859
|
430
|
860 ** The new form `ignore-file-errors', similar to `ignore-errors' may
|
|
861 be used as a short-hand for condition-case when you wish to ignore
|
|
862 file-related error. For example:
|
|
863
|
|
864 (ignore-file-errors (delete-file "foo"))
|
|
865
|
|
866 ** The first argument to `intern-soft' may now also be a symbol, like
|
|
867 with `unintern'. If given a symbol, `intern-soft' will look for that
|
|
868 exact symbol rather than for any string. This is useful when you want
|
|
869 to check whether a specific symbol is interned in an obarray, e.g.:
|
|
870
|
|
871 (intern "foo")
|
|
872 (intern-soft "foo")
|
|
873 => foo
|
|
874 (intern-soft (make-symbol "foo"))
|
|
875 => nil
|
|
876
|
428
|
877 ** The `keywordp' function now returns non-nil only on symbols
|
|
878 interned in the global obarray. For example:
|
|
879
|
|
880 (keywordp (intern ":foo" [0]))
|
|
881 => nil
|
|
882 (keywordp (intern ":foo")) ; The same as (keywordp :foo)
|
|
883 => t
|
|
884
|
442
|
885 This behavior is compatible with other code which treats symbols
|
428
|
886 beginning with colon as keywords only if they are interned in the
|
464
|
887 global obarray. `keywordp' used to wrongly return t in both above
|
|
888 cases.
|
|
889
|
|
890 ** The function `replace-in-string' has been rewritten to use
|
|
891 `replace-match'. This not only makes it much faster, but adds all the
|
|
892 features of `replace-match'.
|
428
|
893
|
442
|
894 ** New variables `this-command-properties' and
|
|
895 `last-command-properties' are now available for communication between
|
|
896 consecutive commands. Commands should use these to communicate with
|
|
897 the pre/post-command hooks, subsequent commands, wrapping commands,
|
|
898 etc. in preference to looking at and/or setting `this-command'.
|
|
899
|
|
900 ** New functions `add-one-shot-hook' and `add-local-one-shot-hook' make
|
|
901 it possible to add a "one-shot" hook, which is to say a hook that runs
|
|
902 only once, and automatically removes itself after the first time it
|
|
903 has run.
|
|
904
|
|
905 ** The descriptor that specifies the text of a menu item can now be an
|
464
|
906 evaluated expression. This makes it parallel with other descriptors,
|
|
907 which can also be expressions.
|
442
|
908
|
428
|
909
|
|
910 * Changes in XEmacs 21.0
|
|
911 ========================
|
|
912
|
|
913 ** XEmacs has been unbundled into constituent installable packages.
|
|
914 See the Info documentation under "Packages" for more information.
|
|
915 See the file `etc/PACKAGES' in the distribution for a partial list of
|
|
916 packages available at the time of the 21.0 release.
|
|
917
|
|
918 ** XEmacs is now supported under Microsoft Windows 95/98 and Windows
|
|
919 NT operating systems. For starters, look at the XEmacs on Windows FAQ
|
|
920 at <URL:http://jagor.srce.hr/~hniksic/xemacs-on-windows-faq.txt>. To
|
|
921 discuss Windows-specific issues, subscribe to the mailing list at
|
|
922 <xemacs-nt-request@xemacs.org>.
|
|
923
|
|
924 ** XEmacs will now use `XEmacs' as its application class if it finds
|
|
925 any `XEmacs' resources in the resource database. Otherwise, it will
|
|
926 continue to use the `Emacs' class.
|
|
927
|
|
928 ** The options menu has been ported to Custom.
|
|
929 This means that each entry in the options menu acts as if you had customized
|
|
930 the corresponding variable by hand. ### WARNING: there is currently no
|
|
931 upgrading function to help you port your old options settings to the new
|
|
932 format. Consequently, if you want to modify the options for XEmacs 21, you
|
|
933 will have to set them all again through the menu, and remove the code loading
|
|
934 .xemacs-options from your .emacs.
|
|
935
|
|
936 ** When the Zmacs region is active, `M-x query-replace' and the other
|
|
937 replace commands now operate on the region contents only.
|
|
938
|
|
939 ** XEmacs now is able to choose X visuals and use private colormaps.
|
|
940 The '-visual <visualStr>' command line option or the '.EmacsVisual'
|
|
941 Xresource controls which visual XEmacs will use, and
|
|
942 '-privateColormap' or '.privateColormap' will force XEmacs to create a
|
|
943 private colormap for use. The syntax for the visual string is
|
|
944 "<visual><bitdepth>" where <visual> is one of 'StaticColor',
|
|
945 'TrueColor', 'GrayScale', 'PseudoColor' or 'DirectColor' and
|
|
946 <bitdepth> is the appropriate number of bits per pixel. If an invalid
|
|
947 or non-supported combination is entered, XEmacs attempts to find a happy
|
|
948 medium. The X creation mechanism will then determine if it needs to
|
|
949 create a colormap for use, or the presence of the private flags will
|
|
950 force it to create it.
|
|
951
|
|
952 ** The `imenu' package has been ported to XEmacs and is available as a
|
|
953 package.
|
|
954
|
|
955 ** `echo-keystrokes' can now be a floating-point number, so that you
|
|
956 can set it to intervals shorter than one second.
|
|
957
|
|
958 (setq echo-keystrokes 0.1)
|
|
959
|
|
960 ** The new command `center-to-window-line' works like `recenter'
|
|
961 (bound to `C-l'), only it does not redisplay the whole display area.
|
|
962
|
|
963 ** The M-. command will now first search through exact tags matches,
|
|
964 and then through inexact matches, as one would expect.
|
|
965
|
|
966 ** The new variable `user-full-name' can be used to customize one's
|
|
967 name when using the Emacs mail and news reading facilities.
|
|
968
|
|
969 Normally, `user-full-name' is a function that returns the full name of
|
|
970 a user or UID, as specified by the system -- for instance,
|
|
971 (user-full-name "root") returns something like "Super-User". However,
|
|
972 when the function is called without arguments, it will return the
|
|
973 value of the `user-full-name' variable. The `user-full-name' variable
|
|
974 is initialized using the environment variable NAME and (failing that)
|
|
975 the user's system name.
|
|
976
|
|
977 The behavior of the `user-full-name' function with an argument
|
|
978 specified is unchanged.
|
|
979
|
|
980 ** The new command `M-x customize-changed-options' lets you customize
|
|
981 all the options whose default values have changed in recent Emacs
|
|
982 versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as argument,
|
|
983 and the command creates a customization buffer showing all the
|
|
984 customizable options whose default values were changed since that
|
|
985 version.
|
|
986
|
|
987 If you don't specify a particular version number argument, then the
|
|
988 customization buffer shows all the customizable options for which
|
|
989 Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
|
|
990
|
|
991 ** The new command `add-log-convert' can be used to convert the
|
|
992 old-style (pre-20.3) ChangeLog buffers to new style, for
|
|
993 consistency. A reminder: if you wish to revert to old-style
|
|
994 ChangeLogs instead, customize the value of `add-log-time-format'
|
|
995 variable.
|
|
996
|
|
997 ** The new command `zap-up-to-char' is now available. It is similar
|
|
998 to `zap-to-char', except that it does not delete the searched-for
|
|
999 character. It is not bound to a key by default.
|
|
1000
|
|
1001 ** You can now store a number into a register with `C-u NUMBER C-x r n'
|
|
1002 REG, increment it by INC with `C-u INC C-x r + REG' (to increment by
|
|
1003 one, omit C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with `C-x r g REG'.
|
|
1004 This is useful for writing keyboard macros.
|
|
1005
|
|
1006 ** The M-: command, when given a prefix argument, will now insert its
|
|
1007 result to the current buffer.
|
|
1008
|
|
1009 ** The `C-h c' command, when given a prefix argument, will now insert
|
|
1010 the message into the current buffer.
|
|
1011
|
|
1012 ** Horizontally split windows may now be dragged using the mouse.
|
|
1013 Because of this, the dividers between vertical windows are always
|
|
1014 visible. To turn it off, set `vertical-divider-always-visible-p' to
|
|
1015 nil.
|
|
1016
|
|
1017 ** XEmacs/Mule (internationalization) changes.
|
|
1018
|
|
1019 *** Mule support now works on TTY's. Use `set-terminal-coding-system'
|
|
1020 and `set-keyboard-coding-system' to specify the coding system of your
|
|
1021 display and keyboard.
|
|
1022
|
|
1023 *** Egg/SJ3 input method is now officially supported. Quail and
|
|
1024 Egg/Skk have been available through the generalized Leim since 20.3.
|
|
1025
|
|
1026 *** Localized Japanese menubars are available if XEmacs is built with
|
|
1027 XFONTSET and either the X11 libraries are built with X_LOCALE defined
|
|
1028 or the native C libraries support Japanese localization. This has
|
|
1029 been available since 20.3, only it hasn't been announced before.
|
|
1030
|
|
1031 ** Jamie Zawinski's `gdb-highlight' extension is now distributed with
|
|
1032 the `debug' package. gdb-highlight makes most objects printed in a
|
|
1033 gdb buffer be mouse-sensitive: as text shows up in the buffer, it is
|
|
1034 parsed, and objects which are recognized have context-sensitive
|
|
1035 commands attached to them. To use it, add the following to `.emacs':
|
|
1036
|
|
1037 (add-hook 'gdb-mode-hook (lambda () (require 'gdb-highlight)))
|
|
1038
|
|
1039 ** The package popper.el is now included in the edit-utils package.
|
|
1040 It has been greatly enhanced with respect to the one once included
|
|
1041 with the ilisp package and should work well under XEmacs 21.0.
|
|
1042
|
|
1043 ** Gnuserv changes
|
|
1044
|
|
1045 *** Like the old 'gnudoit' program. Gnuclient -batch now can read from stdin.
|
|
1046
|
|
1047 *** Gnuclient -batch no longer breaks off the output at the first LF.
|
|
1048
|
|
1049 ** C mode changes
|
|
1050
|
|
1051 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
|
|
1052 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
|
|
1053 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
|
|
1054 definition.
|
|
1055
|
|
1056 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
|
|
1057 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable setings and customizations.
|
|
1058 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu" style
|
|
1059 is still the default however.
|
|
1060
|
|
1061 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
|
|
1062
|
|
1063 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
|
|
1064 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
|
|
1065 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
|
|
1066
|
|
1067 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
|
|
1068 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
|
|
1069
|
|
1070 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
|
|
1071 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
|
|
1072
|
|
1073 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
|
|
1074 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
|
|
1075
|
|
1076 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
|
|
1077 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
|
|
1078
|
|
1079 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
|
|
1080 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
|
|
1081 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
|
|
1082 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
|
|
1083
|
|
1084 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
|
|
1085 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
|
|
1086 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
|
|
1087 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this makes a
|
|
1088 practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
|
|
1089
|
|
1090 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
|
|
1091 and is an alias for it.
|
|
1092
|
|
1093 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
|
|
1094 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
|
|
1095
|
|
1096 ** Changes to Gnus, the XEmacs newsreader.
|
|
1097
|
|
1098 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
|
|
1099 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
|
|
1100 Gnus manual for the full story.
|
|
1101
|
|
1102 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
|
|
1103 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
|
|
1104 group, which is created automatically.
|
|
1105
|
|
1106 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
|
|
1107 values.
|
|
1108
|
|
1109 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
|
|
1110
|
|
1111 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
|
|
1112 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
|
|
1113
|
|
1114 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
|
|
1115 `C-u C-c C-c'.
|
|
1116
|
|
1117 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
|
|
1118
|
|
1119 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
|
|
1120 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
|
|
1121
|
|
1122 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
|
|
1123
|
|
1124 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
|
|
1125 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
|
|
1126
|
|
1127 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
|
|
1128 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
|
|
1129
|
|
1130 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
|
|
1131 control over simplification.
|
|
1132
|
|
1133 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
|
|
1134
|
|
1135 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
|
|
1136 limit.
|
|
1137
|
|
1138 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
|
|
1139
|
|
1140 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
|
|
1141
|
|
1142 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
|
|
1143 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
|
|
1144 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
|
|
1145
|
|
1146 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
|
|
1147 `a' forces normal posting method.
|
|
1148
|
|
1149 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
|
|
1150 -- `W d'.
|
|
1151
|
|
1152 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
|
|
1153 to a non-nil value.
|
|
1154
|
|
1155 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
|
|
1156 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
|
|
1157
|
|
1158 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
|
|
1159 has been added.
|
|
1160
|
|
1161 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
|
|
1162
|
|
1163 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
|
|
1164
|
|
1165 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
|
|
1166 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
|
|
1167
|
|
1168 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
|
|
1169 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
|
|
1170
|
|
1171 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
|
|
1172
|
|
1173 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
|
|
1174 been added.
|
|
1175
|
|
1176 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
|
|
1177 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
|
|
1178
|
|
1179 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
|
|
1180 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
|
|
1181
|
|
1182 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
|
|
1183
|
|
1184 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
|
|
1185
|
|
1186 *** Byte-compilation of user-specs now works under XEmacs.
|
|
1187
|
|
1188 ** The `dir' files are no longer essential for functioning of the Info
|
|
1189 subsystem. If the `dir' file does not exist in an Info directory, the
|
|
1190 relevant information will be generated on-the-fly.
|
|
1191
|
|
1192 This behavior can be customized, look for `Info-auto-generate-directory'
|
|
1193 and `Info-save-auto-generated-dir' in the `info' customization group.
|
|
1194
|
|
1195
|
|
1196 * Lisp and internal changes in XEmacs 21.0
|
|
1197 ==========================================
|
|
1198
|
|
1199 ** It is now possible to build XEmacs with support for 31-bit Lisp
|
|
1200 integers (normally, Lisp integers are only 28 bits wide on 32-bit
|
|
1201 machines.) Configure with --use-minimal-tagbits to test. With this
|
|
1202 change, the maximum buffer size on 32-bit machines is increased from
|
|
1203 128M to 1G. This setting will be made default in a future XEmacs
|
|
1204 version.
|
|
1205
|
|
1206 ** Specifier changes.
|
|
1207
|
|
1208 *** When instantiating a specifier, the window locale now has a higher
|
|
1209 precedence than the buffer locale. This is because the window locale
|
|
1210 is more specific than the buffer locale.
|
|
1211
|
|
1212 *** The new macro `let-specifier' can be used to temporarily add
|
|
1213 specifications to specifiers. See the documentation for details.
|
|
1214
|
|
1215 *** The new specifiers `vertical-scrollbar-visible-p' and
|
|
1216 `horizontal-scrollbar-visible-p' may be used to control scrollbar
|
|
1217 visibility. Previously, the only way to remove a scrollbar was to set
|
|
1218 its size to 0. This method is still supported for backward
|
|
1219 compatibility.
|
|
1220
|
|
1221 *** The new specifiers `scrollbar-on-left-p' and `scrollbar-on-top-p'
|
|
1222 may be used to control the position of the vertical and horizontal
|
|
1223 toolbar. Previously, their position could be changed only through the
|
|
1224 use of X resources.
|
|
1225
|
|
1226 *** The new draggable vertical dividers between windows may be turned
|
|
1227 off using the `vertical-divider-always-visible-p' specifier. When
|
|
1228 this is set to nil, the vertical dividers between windows are shown
|
|
1229 only when needed, and they are not draggable.
|
|
1230
|
|
1231 Other properties of the vertical dividers may be controlled using
|
|
1232 `vertical-divider-shadow-thickness', `vertical-divider-line-width' and
|
|
1233 `vertical-divider-spacing' specifiers, which see.
|
|
1234
|
|
1235 ** Frame focus management changes.
|
|
1236
|
|
1237 *** When the variable focus-follows-mouse is non-nil, `select-frame'
|
|
1238 no longer permanently selects a different frame. The frame selection
|
|
1239 is temporary and is reverted when the current command terminates, much
|
|
1240 like the buffer selected by `set-buffer'. This is the same as in FSF
|
|
1241 Emacs.
|
|
1242
|
|
1243 *** The new function `focus-frame' sets the window system focus to
|
|
1244 FRAME (and selects it), regardless of the value of
|
|
1245 `focus-follows-mouse'. Doing this is not well behaved, so be
|
|
1246 absolutely sure that you want this.
|
|
1247
|
|
1248 The code that uses `select-frame' only to get the window manager focus
|
|
1249 should be changed to use `set-frame-focus' instead, so that they keep
|
|
1250 working when `focus-follows-mouse' is non-nil.
|
|
1251
|
|
1252 *** The special forms `save-selected-frame' and `with-selected-frame'
|
|
1253 can now be used to temporarily change selected frame.
|
|
1254
|
|
1255 *** The behavior of `other-frame' command (`C-x 5 o') is unaffected by
|
|
1256 these changes.
|
|
1257
|
|
1258 ** The function `select-window' now has an optional second argument
|
|
1259 NORECORD which if non-nil inhibits the recording of a buffer change.
|
|
1260
|
|
1261 ** The function `vertical-motion' now correctly handles the second,
|
|
1262 optional WINDOW argument. A new third argument PIXELS, if non-nil,
|
|
1263 indicates that the returned motion should be in pixels.
|
|
1264
|
|
1265 ** The new function `vertical-motion-pixels' is similar to
|
|
1266 vertical-motion but takes as input a vertical motion in pixels.
|
|
1267
|
|
1268 ** The new functions window-text-area-pixel-{width,height,edges} can
|
|
1269 be used to obtain information about the text-displaying area of a
|
|
1270 window.
|
|
1271
|
|
1272 ** The new functions `shrink-window-pixels' and `enlarge-window-pixels'
|
|
1273 can be used to adjust the size of a window by a pixel amount.
|
|
1274
|
|
1275 ** The new function `window-displayed-text-pixel-height' can be used
|
|
1276 to determine the height of the text actually displayed in a window.
|
|
1277
|
|
1278 ** The arithmetic comparison functions <, >, =, /= now accept a
|
|
1279 variable number of arguments.
|
|
1280
|
|
1281 This means that if you want to test whether A < B < C, you can write
|
|
1282 it as (< A B C) instead of (and (< A B) (< B C)). Likewise,
|
|
1283 (apply #'> LIST) now tests if LIST is monotonously increasing -- and
|
|
1284 so on.
|
|
1285
|
|
1286 ** The XEmacs hashtables now have a consistent read/print syntax.
|
|
1287 This means that a hashtable will be readably printed in a
|
|
1288 structure-like form:
|
|
1289
|
|
1290 #s(hashtable size 2 data (key1 value1 key2 value2))
|
|
1291
|
|
1292 When XEmacs reads this form, it will create a new hashtable according
|
|
1293 to description. This allows you to easily dump hashtables to files
|
|
1294 using `prin1', and read them back in using `read'.
|
|
1295
|
|
1296 If `print-readably' is non-nil, a more relaxed syntax is used; for
|
|
1297 instance:
|
|
1298
|
|
1299 #<hashtable size 2/13 data (key1 value1 key2 value2) 0x874d>
|
|
1300
|
|
1301 ** It is now possible to build XEmacs with LDAP support.
|
|
1302 You will need to install a LDAP library first. The following have
|
|
1303 been tested:
|
|
1304 - LDAP 3.3 from the University of Michigan
|
|
1305 (get it from <URL:http://www.umich.edu/~dirsvcs/ldap/>)
|
|
1306 - OpenLDAP 1.0.3 from the OpenLDAP Foundation
|
|
1307 (get it from <URL:http://www.openldap.org/>)
|
|
1308 - LDAP SDK 1.0 from Netscape Corp.
|
|
1309 (get it from <URL:http://developer.netscape.com/>)
|
|
1310
|
|
1311 ** When profiling is in effect, a call-count of all recorded functions
|
|
1312 is now calculated. This information is stored in
|
|
1313 `call-count-profile-table', and is utilized by `profile-results' as
|
|
1314 well as the new command `profile-call-count-results'.
|
|
1315
|
|
1316 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
|
|
1317 starts with a colon, if it is interned in the standard obarray.
|
|
1318
|
|
1319 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
|
|
1320 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
|
|
1321 support pre-19.12 XEmacs and pre-20 GNU Emacs by explicitly setting
|
|
1322 these variables to themselves.
|
|
1323
|
|
1324 ** The `concat' function no longer accepts integer arguments.
|
|
1325
|
|
1326 ** The new function `string' concatenates all its argument characters
|
|
1327 and returns the resulting string. This is consistent with other
|
|
1328 functions, like `list', `vector', etc.
|
|
1329
|
|
1330 ** The function `temp-directory' is now available to return the
|
|
1331 directory to store temporary files. On Unix this will be obtained
|
|
1332 from TMPDIR, defaulting to `/tmp'.
|
|
1333
|
|
1334 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
|
|
1335 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
|
|
1336 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
|
|
1337
|
|
1338 ** The `make-event' function now supports the TYPE and PLIST
|
|
1339 arguments, which can be used to create various events from Lisp. See
|
|
1340 the documentation for details.
|
|
1341
|
|
1342 ** `function-interactive' is a new function that returns the
|
|
1343 interactive specification of a funcallable object.
|
|
1344
|
|
1345 ** The new `lmessage' function allows printing of a formatted message
|
|
1346 with a particular label.
|
|
1347
|
|
1348 (lmessage 'progress "Processing... %d" counter)
|
|
1349
|
|
1350 This function is more convenient than `display-message' because it
|
|
1351 automatically applies `format' to its arguments.
|
|
1352
|
|
1353 ** The new `lwarn' function, analogous to `lmessage', allows printing
|
|
1354 a formatted warning, with a non-default CLASS or LABEL.
|
|
1355
|
|
1356 ** The new function `split-path' can now be used to explode the
|
|
1357 components of a colon-separated search path into a list.
|
|
1358
|
|
1359 (split-path "foo:bar")
|
|
1360 => ("foo" "bar")
|
|
1361
|
|
1362 ** Specifiers and symbols whose value is a specifier are now allowed
|
|
1363 as modeline specifications.
|
|
1364
|
|
1365 ** defcustom now accepts the keyword `:version'. Use this to specify
|
|
1366 in which version of Emacs a certain variable's default value changed.
|
|
1367 For example,
|
|
1368
|
|
1369 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
|
|
1370 :type 'integer
|
|
1371 :group 'foo
|
|
1372 :version "21.0")
|
|
1373
|
|
1374 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options
|
|
1375 command.
|
|
1376
|
|
1377 ** The line number tracking in modeline is now efficient, even for
|
|
1378 very large buffers. This is achieved by caching the line numbers of
|
|
1379 recent buffer positions, and reusing them. This cache is used only in
|
|
1380 the buffers where `line-number-mode' is in effect.
|
|
1381
|
|
1382 ** When the new GNU Malloc aka Doug Lea Malloc is available, it will
|
|
1383 be used. This should result in better performance on Linux systems
|
|
1384 with libc6.
|
|
1385
|
|
1386 ** The code XEmacs uses to assemble its various paths into the
|
|
1387 directory hierarchy has been rewritten to support the package system.
|
|
1388 Look under "Startup Paths" in the Info documentation for more
|
|
1389 information.
|
|
1390
|
|
1391 *** site-lisp is no longer part of the load-path by default.
|
|
1392 Its use is deprecated, but you can specify --with-site-lisp=yes at the
|
|
1393 configure command line to get it back.
|
|
1394
|
|
1395 *** `Info-default-directory-list' is now obsolete. If you want to
|
|
1396 change the path which XEmacs uses to search for info files, set
|
|
1397 `Info-directory-list' instead.
|
464
|
1398
|
|
1399
|
|
1400 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
|