xemacs-beta: etc/NEWS comparison

comparison etc/NEWS @ 479:52626a2f02ef

[xemacs-hg @ 2001-04-20 11:31:53 by ben] about/news changes, already in 21.4

author	ben
date	Fri, 20 Apr 2001 11:32:27 +0000
parents	5aa1854ad537
children	98fb34b6fbe9

comparison

equal deleted inserted replaced

-:09855058eefc
+:52626a2f02ef
 * Changes in XEmacs 21.4
 ========================
+** Summary of user-visible changes:
+-- The delete key now deletes forward by default.
+-- Shifted motion keys now select text by default.
+-- You can now build XEmacs with support for GTK+ widget set.
+-- ~/.xemacs/init.el is now the preferred location for the init file.
+- XEmacs now supports a `~/.xemacs/init.el' startup file.
+- Custom file will move to ~/.xemacs/custom.el.
+-- Much-improved sample init.el, showing how to use many useful features.
+-- XEmacs support for menu accelerators has been much improved.
+-- Default menubar improvements.
+- Default menubar has many new commands and better organization.
+- The font-menu is now available under MS Windows.
+-- Dialog box improvements, including a real file dialog box.
+- XEmacs now has a proper file dialog box under MS Windows (and GTK)!
+- The old clunky file dialog box is improved.
+- Keyboard traversal now works correctly in MS Windows dialog boxes.
+- There is a Search dialog box available from Edit->Find...
+-- New buffer tabs.
+-- There is a new MS Windows installer, netinstall, ported from Cygwin.
+-- The subprocess quote-handling mechanism under Windows is much improved.
+-- Printing support now available under MS Windows.
+-- Selection improvements.
+- Kill and yank now interact with the clipboard under Windows.
+- MS Windows support for selection is now much more robust.
+- Motif selection support is now more correct (but slower).
+-- Mail spool locking now works correctly.
+-- International support changes.
+- The default coding-priority-list is now safer.
+- International keysyms are now supported under X.
+- MS Windows 1251 code page now supported.
+- Czech, Thai, Cyrillic-KOI8, Vietnamese, Ethiopic now supported.
+- Proper support for words in Latin 3 and Latin 4.
+-- Help buffers contain hyperlinks, and other changes.
+-- The modeline's text is now scrollable.
+-- The mouse wheel under MS Windows now functions correctly.
+-- Interactive searching and matching case improvements.
+- Incremental search will now highlight all visible matches.
+- Interactive searches always respect uppercase characters.
+-- Rectangle functions rewritten to avoid inserting extra spaces.
+-- New command `kill-entire-line' that always kills the entire line.
+-- Default values correctly stored in minibuffer histories.
+-- You can now create "indirect buffers", like in GNU Emacs.
+-- Pixel-based scrolling has been implemented.
+-- Operation progress can be displayed using graphical widgets.
+-- User names following a tilde can now be completed at file name prompts.
+-- XEmacs can now play sound using Enlightenment Sound Daemon (ESD).
+-- X-Face support is now available under MS Windows.
+-- The PostgreSQL Relational Database Management System is now supported.
+-- Indentation no longer indents comments that begin at column zero.
+-- Face and variable settings can have comments in Customize.
+-- New locations for early package hierarchies.
+-- The `auto-save' library has been greatly improved.
+-- New variable `mswindows-alt-by-itself-activates-menu'.
+-- The variable `kill-whole-line' now only takes effect interactively.
+-- Other init-file-related changes.
+- Init file in your home directory may be called `.emacs.el'.
+- New command-line switches -user-init-file and -user-init-directory.
+-- Etags changes.
+- In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
+- New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex.
+- New option --declarations, for C-type languages.
+- In C++, tags are created for "operator".
+- Ada now supported.
+- In Fortran, procedure is no longer tagged.
+- In Java, tags are created for "interface".
+- In Lisp, def-type constructs are now tagged.
+- In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables.
+- Python now supported.
+- New file extensions recognized: .ss, .pdb, .psw.
 ** The delete key now deletes forward by default.
 This is regulated by the variable `delete-key-deletes-forward', which
 now defaults to t.  `delete-key-deletes-forward' takes effect only on
 the systems that offer both a backspace and a delete key.  If set to
 nil, the key labeled "Delete" will always delete backward.  If set to
 non-nil, the "Delete" key will delete forward, except on keyboards
-where a "Backspace" key is not provided (e.g. old DEC keyboards.)
+where a "Backspace" key is not provided (e.g. old DEC keyboards).
 Unless our implementation has bugs, the only reason why you would want
 to set `delete-key-deletes-forward' to nil is if you want to use the
 Delete key to delete backwards, despite the presence (according to
 Xlib) of a BackSpace key on the keyboard.
+** Shifted motion keys now select text by default.
+You can turn this off by setting `shifted-motion-keys-select-region'
+to nil.  This works based off of particular keys, not particular
+commands: Thus, the arrow keys will normally trigger selection when
+the Shift key is held down regardless of their bindings, and non-arrow
+keys with the same bindings (e.g. C-f) will not work this way.  You
+can control which keys trigger shifted motion using
+`motion-keys-for-shifted-motion'.  See also
+`unshifted-motion-keys-deselect-region'.
 ** You can now build XEmacs with support for GTK+ widget set.
 XEmacs built that way uses GTK+ to draw menubars, scrollbars, and
 other GUI components, as well GDK for drawing text, choosing fonts,
 allocating colors, etc.  Additionally, GTK-XEmacs supports Lisp
 To use this, build XEmacs with the `--with-gtk' configure flag.  (Of
 course, you'll need to have the GTK+ libraries and header files on the
 system.)  Gnome widgets and functionality are supported where
 available, and can be turned off.
-** Shifted motion keys now select text by default.  You can turn this
+** ~/.xemacs/init.el is now the preferred location for the init file.
-off by setting `shifted-motion-keys-select-region' to nil.
+*** XEmacs now supports a `~/.xemacs/init.el' startup file.
-** There is a new command `kill-entire-line' that always kills the
+If it exists, XEmacs will prefer it over `.emacs' and `.emacs.el'.
-entire line at point, regardless of whether the point is at the
+The file may be byte-compiled as `~/.xemacs/init.elc'.
-beginning of line, and regardless of the setting of `kill-whole-line'.
+If present, the `~/.xemacs/' directory may contain startup files for
-** The variable `kill-whole-line' now only takes effect when kill-line
+XEmacs packages that support it.
-is called interactively.  Although this is a departure from a previous
-behavior in the case of setting this variable kill-whole-line to t,
+The first time you start up XEmacs, it will ask you if you would like
-it is almost certainly what has always been intended, and most likely
+to migrate your `.emacs' to the new location. (Your custom settings
-the old way of doing things introduced bugs.
+will also be moved, to `~/.xemacs/custom.el' -- see below.) If so, you
+will also be asked whether you would like to create a compatibility
-** The help buffers created by the plethora of C-h commands now
+`.emacs' for backward compatibility with previous versions of XEmacs
-contain hyperlinks.
+and with GNU Emacs. (This compatibility `.emacs' simply loads the new
+init and custom files.) Doing this is generally a good idea -- new
-** The modeline's text is now scrollable.  This is controlled by the
+versions of XEmacs will prefer `~/.xemacs/init.el' over `~/.emacs' in
-variable `modeline-scrolling-method', which you need to set to a
+any case.
-non-nil value.  You can also choose scrolling types; see the docstring
-of `modeline-scrolling-method' for more information.
+You can manually migrate at any time with `migrate-user-init-file',
+and undo any migration with `unmigrate-user-init-file'.  The function
-** XEmacs menus now have accelerators by default.  If a menu item does
+`create-compatibility-dot-emacs' also lets you manually create a
-not have an accelerator specified, one is created dynamically, using
+compatibility `.emacs'.
-numbers 1-9 and letters.
+NOTE: Under MS Windows, your home directory (i.e. the directory named
-** Interactive searching and matching case improvements.
+`~') is specified by the HOME environment variable, and defaults to
+C:\.  To set this variable, modify AUTOEXEC.BAT under Windows 95/98,
-Case sensitiveness in searching operations is normally controlled by
+or select Control Panel->System->Advanced->Environment Variables...
-the variable `case-fold-search' (if non-nil, case is ignored while
+under Windows NT/2000.
-searching).  This mechanism has now been slightly improved for
-interactive searches: if the search string (or regexp) contains
+*** Custom file will move to ~/.xemacs/custom.el.
-uppercase characters, the searching is forced to be case-sensitive,
-`case-fold-search'.
+Whereas customize settings were formerly stored in the regular init
+file, XEmacs now prefers them to be in a separate file
-The new behavior affects all functions performing interactive
+`~/.xemacs/custom.el', completely under automatic control.  This
-searches, like `zap-to-char', `list-matching-lines', `tags-search'
+change goes with the migration of the init file, and XEmacs offers
-etc.  The incremental search facility has always behaved that way.
+automatic migration upon startup.
-** Incremental search will now highlight all visible matches, making
+** Much-improved sample init.el, showing how to use many useful features.
-it easier to anticipate where consecutive C-s or C-r will place the
-point.  If you want to disable the feature, set
+The sample init file, located in the `etc/' directory of the XEmacs
-`isearch-highlight-all-matches' to nil.
+installation, has been renamed from `sample.emacs' to `sample.init.el',
+and pretty much rewritten from scratch. (You can view it by selecting
-** The "coding systems" feature now works even in an XEmacs compiled
+the menu item Help->Samples->Sample init.el.)  Many of the most-useful
-without international (Mule) support.  This means that for example
+optional features in XEmacs have been enabled, and other features that
-XEmacs can recognize newline convention used by the file you are
+are useful but may be annoying to some are present but commented out.
-editing.
+There is also extensive documentation on how to add your own
+improvements to the init file and where to find more documentation
-** You can now use the buffer tabs to switch between buffers.  The
+elsewhere in XEmacs.  The file has been specifically designed so that
-tabs are located between the toolbar and the uppermost window, in a
+most people can simply make it their own init file by copying it to
-location called "gutter".  If you dislike the buffer tabs, you can
+~/.xemacs/init.el, and they will be satisfied with the results.
-disable them by customizing `gutter-buffers-tab-visible-p', or by
-placing this in your .emacs:
+** XEmacs support for menu accelerators has been much improved.
-(set-gutter-element-visible-p default-gutter-visible-p 'buffers-tab nil)
+It now works properly under MS Windows, for example.  To enable
+accelerators, set `menu-accelerator-enabled' to `menu-force'.  Menus
-You can change the location of the gutter with
+now have accelerators by default, currently on the first letter of the
-`set-default-gutter-position', however currently only MS-Windows
+menu item unless another letter was indicated as the accelerator using
-supports tab widgets with orientations other than vertical.
+%_ in the menu string.  These %_ specifications are automatically
+removed when displaying the menu item, and are handled correctly in
-** Kill and yank now interact with the clipboard by default under
+functions such as `normalize-menu-item-name'.  Some auto-generated
-Windows.  This was done by changing the default value of
+menus will have accelerators added dynamically, using numbers 1-9 and
-`interprogram-cut-function' and `interprogram-paste-function'.  You
+letters; to add this feature yourself, use the Lisp command
-can get the old behavior by setting these to nil, and there is an
+`submenu-generate-accelerator-spec' in a menu filter.  The feature
-option on the options menu to do this.
+`menu-accelerator-support' has been added so that packages can check
+whether this support exists.
-** When you press RET at a minibuffer prompt that provides a default
-value, the value is stored in history instead of an empty line.  Also,
+** Default menubar improvements.
-you can now edit the default value by pressing the down arrow,
-accessing the logical "future" value.  Not all minibuffer prompts have
+*** Default menubar has many new commands and better organization.
-yet been converted to support this feature.
+The default menubar has been extensively reorganized.  Many more
-** International keysyms are now supported under X.  This means that
+commands are available, and they are more logically organized.  The
-XEmacs running under Mule will automatically recognize the keysym
+Options menu, in particular, has been significantly expanded, and almost
-`scaron' to be the lower-case `s' with caron in the Latin 2 character
+everything on the new Cmds menu is new. (Much of the useful
-set.  (Specifically, it will bind the keysym to `self-insert' and
+functionality from the `big-menubar' package has been imported.)
-augment its `ascii-character' property.)  This is very useful with
-XFree under European locales as shipped by recent Linux distributions.
+*** The font-menu is now available under MS Windows.
-If XEmacs is compiled without Mule support, the feature still works,
-but it is unaware of different character sets -- it unconditionally
+** Dialog box improvements, including a real file dialog box.
-sets the `ascii-character' property to values in the [160, 256) range.
+*** XEmacs now has a proper file dialog box under MS Windows (and GTK)!
-** The rectangle functions have been almost completely rewritten in
+This will appear whenever you select a menu item that requires a file
-order to avoid inserting undesirable spaces, notably at the end of
+as an argument.
-lines.  Two typical examples of the old behavior were
-`string-rectangle', which filled all lines up to the right side of the
+*** The old clunky file dialog box is improved.
-rectangle, and `clear-rectangle', which filled even empty lines up to
+The in-buffer file dialog box (visible on non-MS-Windows, non-GTK
-the left side.  All functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting
+systems) is still clunky but has had many improvements to make it work
-unwanted spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the
+significantly better.
-old way.
+*** Keyboard traversal now works correctly in MS Windows dialog boxes.
-Also, the behavior of `string-rectangle' is now compliant with
-`pending-delete-mode': if this mode is active, then the string
+*** There is a Search dialog box available from Edit->Find...
-replaces the region rectangle.  Otherwise, the command does not delete
+However, it's very experimental and needs a lot of work.
-or overwrite any existing text.  For those who want that feature but do
-not use pending-delete-mode, a new function, `replace-rectangle', is
+** New buffer tabs.
-available.
+You can now use buffer tabs to switch between buffers.
-As a side effect, the FORCE argument to `move-to-column' now
-understands the special value `coerce', which means that the line
+The tabs are located between the toolbar and the uppermost window, in
-should not be filled if it is too short to reach the desired column.
+a location called the "gutter".  If you dislike the buffer tabs, you can
+disable them using the menu item `Options->Display->Buffers Tab Visible'
-** Customize now supports adding comments about your face and variable
+by customizing `gutter-buffers-tab-visible-p', or by placing this in
-settings using a new menu entry.  Comments for variables can also be
+your .xemacs/init.el:
-assigned by calling `customize-set-(value|variable)' with a prefix
-argument.
+(custom-set-variables '(gutter-buffers-tab-visible-p nil))
-** XEmacs now locates the early package hierarchies at
+You can change the location of the gutter using the menu item
-~/.xemacs/mule-packages/ and ~/.xemacs/xemacs-packages/.  Previously,
+`Options->Display->Default Gutter Location' or with (e.g.)
-the early packages were located in ~/.xemacs/.
+(custom-set-variables '(default-gutter-position 'left))
-** You can now create "indirect buffers", like in GNU Emacs.  An
-indirect buffer shares its text with another buffer ("base buffer"),
+However, currently only MS Windows supports tab widgets with
-but has its own major mode, local variables, extents, and narrowing.
+orientations other than vertical, and it doesn't currently support
-An indirect buffer has a name of its own, distinct from those of the
+gutters on the bottom of the frame.
-base buffer and all other buffers.  An indirect buffer cannot itself
-be visiting a file (though its base buffer can be).  The base buffer
+** There is a new MS Windows installer, netinstall, ported from Cygwin.
-cannot itself be indirect.
+Nearly complete automation of the XEmacs install process from
-Use (make-indirect-buffer BASE-BUFFER NAME) to make an indirect buffer
+ftp.xemacs.org.  Includes selection of Lisp packages to install, etc.
-named NAME whose base is BASE-BUFFER.  If BASE-BUFFER is itself an
-indirect buffer, its base buffer is used as the base for the new
+** The subprocess quote-handling mechanism under Windows is much improved.
-buffer.
+Specifically, the quote-handling mechanism has been completely rewritten,
-You can make an indirect buffer current, or switch to it in a window,
+and you should now be able to use single or double quotes to quote arguments
-just as you would a non-indirect buffer.
+just like under Unix, and expect to get correct results regardless of the
+shell you are using (e.g. CMD.EXE, bash from Cygwin, etc.).  For example,
-The function `buffer-base-buffer' returns a buffer's base buffer or
+the following command:
-nil, if given an ordinary (non-indirect) buffer.  The function
-`buffer-indirect-children' returns a list of the indirect children of
+M-x grep '<<<<<<<' *.c
-a base buffer.
+should work as intended.
-** User names following the tilde character can now be completed at
-file name prompts; e.g. `C-x C-f ~hni<TAB>' will complete to
+** Printing support now available under MS Windows.
-`~hniksic/'.  To make this operation faster, a cache of user names is
-maintained internally.
+The File->Print... menu item pretty-prints using the standard MS
+Windows printing facilities.  Unfortunately it's still rather
-The new primitives available for this purpose are functions named
+experimental.  There is a separate `msprinter' device tag for MS
-`user-name-completion' and `user-name-all-completions'.
+Windows printers, and so you can control the way that faces appear on
+the printer by using this tag to specify device-specific face
-** XEmacs can now play sound using Enlightenment Sound Daemon (ESD).
+settings.
-It will try NAS first, then ESD, then playing native sound directly.
+** Selection improvements.
-** X-Face support is now available under MS-Windows.
-If an X-Face library built under MS-Windows is available then XEmacs
+*** Kill and yank now interact with the clipboard under Windows.
-will use this at build time.
+This was done by changing the default value of `interprogram-cut-function'
-** The font-menu is now available under MS-Windows.
+and `interprogram-paste-function'.  You can get the old behavior by
+setting these to nil, and there is an option on the options menu to do
-** MS-Windows support for selection is now much more robust.
+this.
+*** MS Windows support for selection is now much more robust.
 Generally selection should now do what you would expect under
-MS-Windows: the middle mouse button will paste your current selection
+MS Windows: the middle mouse button will paste your current selection
 or the clipboard; conversions from different types of selection to the
 clipboard can be made; the kill-ring and friends will be updated as
 per X.
 The only thing selection doesn't do is set the clipboard automatically
-as this would break the MS-Windows model.  If you want this behavior
+as this would break the MS Windows model.  If you want this behavior
 then set `selection-sets-clipboard' to t.
-** Motif selection support is now more correct (but slower) in its behaviour.
+*** Motif selection support is now more correct (but slower).
 Changes have been made to allow correct operation of cut/copy/paste
-operations between native widgets and XEmacs buffers. However, this
+operations between native widgets and XEmacs buffers.  However, this
 can lead to a lot of X traffic which slows down the performance of
 `C-k'. If you want the old behaviour then set
 `x-selection-strict-motif-ownership' to nil.
 ** Mail spool locking now works correctly.
 XEmacs has always come with a little auxiliary program, movemail,
 which moves mail out of the system's spool area into user storage.  To
 coordinate between XEmacs, the mail delivery agent, and other mail
 user agents, movemail needs to properly lock the spool file before
 moving it.  Movemail now correctly respects the --mail-locking option
 When installing XEmacs, make sure you configure it according to your
 environment's mail spool locking conventions.  When you're using a
 binary kit, set the `mail-lock-method' variable at startup, or the
 EMACSLOCKMETHOD environment variable.
+** International support changes.
+*** The default coding-priority-list is now safer.
+This means that if you have no language environment set, Mule no
+longer automatically recognizes ISO 2022 escapes in your files.  This
+makes editing binary files safe.
+*** International keysyms are now supported under X.
+This means that XEmacs running under Mule will automatically recognize
+the keysym `scaron' to be the lower-case `s' with caron in the Latin 2
+character set.  (Specifically, it will bind the keysym to
+`self-insert' and augment its `ascii-character' property.)  This is
+very useful with XFree under European locales as shipped by recent
+Linux distributions.  If XEmacs is compiled without Mule support, the
+feature still works, but it is unaware of different character sets --
+it unconditionally sets the `ascii-character' property to values in
+the [160, 256) range.
+*** MS Windows 1251 code page now supported.
+It's available as coding system `windows-1251'.
+*** Czech, Thai, Cyrillic-KOI8, Vietnamese, Ethiopic now supported.
+*** Proper support for words in Latin 3 and Latin 4.
+The appropriate characters in Latin 3 and Latin 4 character sets are
+correctly defined as words.
+** Help buffers contain hyperlinks, and other changes.
+The help buffers created by C-h commands now contain hyperlinks to
+other commands, functions and variables mentioned in the documentation.
+Use button2 to follow a link.  Use button3 to bring up a context menu
+that lets you follow the link, find the source for the item, do a tag
+search, etc.  The buffers are also syntax-highlighted.
+Help functions (e.g. `C-h f') now know how to print macro argument
+lists.  If your macro definition included an argument list for the sake
+of help output, you no longer need to do that.
+** The modeline's text is now scrollable.
+This is controlled by the variable `modeline-scrolling-method', which
+you need to set to a non-nil value.  You can also choose scrolling
+types; see the docstring of `modeline-scrolling-method' for more
+information.
+** The mouse wheel under MS Windows now functions correctly.
+It scrolls the XEmacs window under the pointer, not the selected
+window.
+** Interactive searching and matching case improvements.
+*** Incremental search will now highlight all visible matches.
+This makes it easier to anticipate where consecutive C-s or C-r will
+place the point.  If you want to disable the feature, set
+`isearch-highlight-all-matches' to nil.
+*** Interactive searches always respect uppercase characters.
+Case sensitiveness in searching operations is normally controlled
+by the variable `case-fold-search' (if non-nil, case is ignored while
+searching).  This mechanism has now been slightly improved for
+interactive searches: if the search string (or regexp) contains
+uppercase characters, the searching is forced to be case-sensitive,
+`case-fold-search'.
+The new behavior affects all functions performing interactive
+searches, like `zap-to-char', `list-matching-lines', `tags-search'
+etc.  The incremental search facility has always behaved that way.
+** Rectangle functions rewritten to avoid inserting extra spaces.
+The rectangle functions have been almost completely rewritten in
+order to avoid inserting undesirable spaces, notably at the end of
+lines.  Two typical examples of the old behavior were
+`string-rectangle', which filled all lines up to the right side of the
+rectangle, and `clear-rectangle', which filled even empty lines up to
+the left side.  All functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting
+unwanted spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the
+old way.
+Also, the behavior of `string-rectangle' is now compliant with
+`pending-delete-mode': if this mode is active, then the string
+replaces the region rectangle.  Otherwise, the command does not delete
+or overwrite any existing text.  For those who want that feature but do
+not use pending-delete-mode, a new function, `replace-rectangle', is
+available.
+As a side effect, the FORCE argument to `move-to-column' now
+understands the special value `coerce', which means that the line
+should not be filled if it is too short to reach the desired column.
+** New command `kill-entire-line' that always kills the entire line.
+This kills the entire line at point, regardless of whether the point
+is at the beginning of line, and regardless of the setting of
+`kill-whole-line'.
+** Default values correctly stored in minibuffer histories.
+When you press RET at a minibuffer prompt that provides a default
+value, the value is stored in history instead of an empty line.  Also,
+you can now edit the default value by pressing the down arrow,
+accessing the logical "future" value.  Not all minibuffer prompts have
+yet been converted to support this feature.
+** You can now create "indirect buffers", like in GNU Emacs.
+An indirect buffer shares its text with another buffer ("base
+buffer"), but has its own major mode, local variables, extents, and
+narrowing.  An indirect buffer has a name of its own, distinct from
+those of the base buffer and all other buffers.  An indirect buffer
+cannot itself be visiting a file (though its base buffer can be).
+The base buffer cannot itself be indirect.
+Use (make-indirect-buffer BASE-BUFFER NAME) to make an indirect buffer
+named NAME whose base is BASE-BUFFER.  If BASE-BUFFER is itself an
+indirect buffer, its base buffer is used as the base for the new
+buffer.
+You can make an indirect buffer current, or switch to it in a window,
+just as you would a non-indirect buffer.
+The function `buffer-base-buffer' returns a buffer's base buffer or
+nil, if given an ordinary (non-indirect) buffer.  The function
+`buffer-indirect-children' returns a list of the indirect children of
+a base buffer.
+** Pixel-based scrolling has been implemented.
+By default this will attempt to scroll in increments equal to the
+height of the default face.  Set `window-pixel-scroll-increment' to
+modify this behavior.
+** Operation progress can be displayed using graphical widgets.
+See `progress-feedback' for details.  This support has been switched
+on by default for font-lock and some web browsing functions.  If you
+do not like this behavior, set `progress-feedback-use-echo-area' to
+nil.
+** User names following a tilde can now be completed at file name prompts.
+e.g. `C-x C-f ~hni<TAB>' will complete to `~hniksic/'.  To make this
+operation faster, a cache of user names is maintained internally.
+The new primitives available for this purpose are functions named
+`user-name-completion' and `user-name-all-completions'.
+** XEmacs can now play sound using Enlightenment Sound Daemon (ESD).
+It will try NAS first, then ESD, then playing native sound directly.
+** X-Face support is now available under MS Windows.
+If an X-Face library built under MS Windows is available then XEmacs
+will use this at build time.
+** The PostgreSQL Relational Database Management System is now supported.
+It is now possible to build XEmacs so that the programming interface
+to the PostgreSQL RDBMS (libpq) is available in XEmacs Lisp.
+Supported versions of PostgreSQL are 6.5.3 (earlier versions may work,
+but have not been tested) and 7.0-beta1.
 ** Indentation no longer indents comments that begin at column zero.
 This makes it easy to deal with commented out regions of code.
-** Init file changes.
+** Face and variable settings can have comments in Customize.
+Customize now supports adding comments about your face and variable
-*** XEmacs now supports a `~/.xemacs/init.el' startup file.  If
+settings using a new menu entry.  Comments for variables can also be
-it exists, XEmacs will prefer it over `.emacs' and `.emacs.el'.  The
+assigned by calling `customize-set-(value|variable)' with a prefix
-file may be byte-compiled as `~/.xemacs/init.elc'.
+argument.
-If present, the `~/.xemacs/' directory may contain startup files for
+** New locations for early package hierarchies.
-XEmacs packages that support it.
+XEmacs now locates the early package hierarchies at
+~/.xemacs/mule-packages/ and ~/.xemacs/xemacs-packages/.  Previously,
+the early packages were located in ~/.xemacs/.
+** The `auto-save' library has been greatly improved.
+(This lets you group all your auto-save files into one directory, and
+is provided standardly with XEmacs.  See `etc/sample.init.el',
+available on the Help menu, for more info on how to set it up.)
+Specifically, it now works under MS Windows, and it uses a completely
+reversible encoding (basically quoted-printable), so that all
+filenames (as well as non-filename buffers) are successfully handled
+regardless of any special characters in their names.
+** New variable `mswindows-alt-by-itself-activates-menu'.
+If you set this variable to nil then pressing and releasing the Alt
+key under MS Windows will no longer activate the menubar.  The default
+is t.  This is not to be confused with `menu-accelerator-enabled',
+which enables the use of Alt+<Letter> accelerators to invoke the
+menus.
+** The variable `kill-whole-line' now only takes effect interactively.
+(This variable controls the behavior of `kill-line'.) Although this
+is a departure from a previous behavior in the case of setting this
+variable `kill-whole-line' to t, it is almost certainly what has
+always been intended, and most likely the old way of doing things
+introduced bugs.
+** Other init-file-related changes.
 *** Init file in your home directory may be called `.emacs.el'.
 Like in GNU Emacs 20.4 and on, you can now name the XEmacs init file
 located in your home directory `.emacs.el'.  Formerly the name had to
 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file is the one
 that is used.
 *** New command-line switches -user-init-file and -user-init-directory.
 These can be used to specify alternate locations for what is normally
 ~/.emacs and ~/.xemacs.
 Moreover, the `-user <user>' command-line option (which used to only
 work in unpredictable ways) is now equivalent to `-user-init-file
 ~<user>/.xemacs/init.el -user-init-directory ~<user>/.xemacs', or
 `-user-init-file ~<user>/.emacs -user-init-directory ~<user>/.xemacs',
 whichever init file comes first.
-*** Custom file will move to ~/.xemacs/custom.el.
-Whereas customize settings were formerly stored in the regular init
-file, XEmacs now prefers them to be in a separate file
-`~/.xemacs/custom.el', completely under automatic control.  This
-change goes with the migration of the init file, and XEmacs offers
-automatic migration upon startup.
-** New variable `mswindows-alt-by-itself-activates-menu'.
-If you set this variable to nil then pressing and releasing the Alt
-key under MS-Windows will no longer activate the menubar.  The default
-is t.  This is not to be confused with `menu-accelerator-enabled',
-which enables the use of Alt+<Letter> accelerators to invoke the
-menus.
-** Pixel-based scrolling has been implemented.
-By default this will attempt to scroll in increments equal to the
-height of the default face.  Set `window-pixel-scroll-increment' to
-modify this behavior.
-** Operation progress can be displayed using graphical widgets.
-See `progress-feedback' for details.  This support has been switched
-on by default for font-lock and some web browsing functions.  If you
-do not like this behavior set `progress-feedback-use-echo-area'.
-** The PostgreSQL Relational Database Management System is now supported.
-It is now possible to build XEmacs so that the programming interface
-to the PostgreSQL RDBMS (libpq) is available in XEmacs Lisp.
-Supported versions of PostgreSQL are 6.5.3 (earlier versions may work,
-but have not been tested) and 7.0-beta1.
-** Help functions (e.g. `C-h f') now know how to print macro argument
-lists.  If your macro definition included an argument list for the
-sake of help output, you no longer need to do that.
-** Mule changes.
-*** Windows 1251 code page is now supported as coding system
-`windows-1251'.
-*** Czech, Thai, Cyrillic-KOI8, Vietnamese, Ethiopic support now
-available.
-*** The appropriate characters in Latin 3 and Latin 4 character sets
-are correctly defined as words.
-*** The default coding-priority-list is now safer.  This means that if
-you have no language environment set, Mule no longer automatically
-recognizes ISO 2022 escapes in your files.  This makes editing binary
-files safe.
 ** Etags changes.
 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
-*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex.  It is now
+*** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex.
-possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
+It is now possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the
-{lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints
+regexp with {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags
-out.  This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each
+--help' prints out.  This feature is useful especially for regex
-line contains a regular expression.  The manual contains details.
+files, where each line contains a regular expression.  The manual
+contains details.
-*** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
+*** New option --declarations, for C-type languages.
+In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
 declarations when given the --declarations option.
-*** In C++, tags are created for "operator".  The tags have the form
+*** In C++, tags are created for "operator".
-"operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
+The tags have the form "operator+", without spaces between the
+keyword and the operator.
-*** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
-types.
+*** Ada now supported.
+Tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and types.
 *** In Fortran, procedure is no longer tagged.
 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
-*** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
+*** In Lisp, def-type constructs are now tagged.
-are now tagged.
+This includes "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs.
-*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables.  my and local
+*** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables.
-variables are tagged.
+my and local variables are tagged.
-*** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
+*** Python now supported.
+def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
-*** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
+*** New file extensions recognized: .ss, .pdb, .psw.
+.ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
 for PSWrap.
 * Lisp and internal changes in XEmacs 21.4
 ==========================================
 buttons, scrollbars, combo boxes, edit fields and progress gauges in a
 buffer.  As a side effect subwindow support now works once again.
 All of this is still fairly experimental and there is no
 documentation.  The current APIs might change in a future version of
-XEmacs.  Some widgets are only available under MS-Windows.  See the
+XEmacs.  Some widgets are only available under MS Windows.  See the
 file glyphs-test.el in the XEmacs src distribution for examples of
 usage.
 The buffers-tab functionality and progress gauge have been implemented
 using this feature.
-** A new Windows installer, netinstall ported from Cygwin.
-Nearly complete automation of the XEmacs install process from
-ftp.xemacs.org.  Includes selection of Lisp packages to install, etc.
-** Syntax tables may now be specified for a part of a buffer by
-attaching the `syntax-table' property to an extent.  For compatibility
-with GNU Emacs, you may use the text-property interface to achieve the
-same result.
 ** Case translation now supports international characters.
 *** Instead of being lists of 256-character strings, case tables are
 now opaque objects.  The interface to access them is almost the same,
 know.
 *** The code that implements case-insensitive search has been modified
 to respect the case table settings.  This also applies to regexp
 search.
+** Syntax tables may now be specified for a part of a buffer by
+attaching the `syntax-table' property to an extent.  For compatibility
+with GNU Emacs, you may use the text-property interface to achieve the
+same result.
 ** Values of variables `user-init-file' and `user-init-directory' are
 now absolute file/directory names.  Previously, both variables used to
 be relative to `(concat "~" init-file-user)'.  This turned out to be
 too complicated for most packages (and some core Lisp files) to use

Mercurial > hg > xemacs-beta

comparison etc/NEWS @ 479:52626a2f02ef