3 * Changes in XEmacs 20.4
4 ========================
6 ** XEmacs 20.4 is a bugfix release with no user-visible changes.
9 * Changes in XEmacs 20.3
10 ========================
12 ** Quail input method is now available.
14 Quail is a simple key-translation system that allows users to input
15 any multilingual text from normal ASCII keyboard. This means that
16 XEmacs with Mule now supports a number of European languages.
18 ** More Windows NT support.
20 Thanks to efforts of many people, coordinated by David Hobley
21 <davidh@wr.com.au> and Marc Paquette <marcpa@cam.org>, beta versions
22 of XEmacs now run on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows NT and Windows
23 95). The current betas require having an X server to run XEmacs;
24 however, a native NT/95 port is in alpha, thanks to Jonathan Harris
25 <jhar@tardis.ed.ac.uk>.
27 The NT development is now coordinated by a mailing list at
28 <xemacs-nt@xemacs.org>. Mail to <xemacs-nt-request@xemacs.org> to
31 ** Multiple TTY frames are now available.
33 On consoles that display only one frame at a time (e.g. TTY consoles),
34 creating a new frame with `C-x 5 2' also raises and selects that
35 frame. The behavior of window system frames is unchanged.
37 ** Package starting changes.
39 State of Emacs should never be changed with loading a package. The
40 following XEmacs packages that used to break this have been changed.
42 *** Loading `paren' no longer enables paren-blinking. Use
43 `paren-set-mode' explicitly, or customize `paren-mode'.
45 *** Loading `uniquify' no longer enables uniquify. Set
46 `uniquify-buffer-name-style' to a legal value.
48 *** Loading `time' no longer enables display time. Invoke
49 `display-time' explicitly.
51 *** Loading `jka-compr' no longer enables on-the-fly compression. Use
52 `toggle-auto-compression' instead.
54 *** Loading `id-select' no longer enables its behaviour. Use
55 `id-select-install' instead.
57 ** Zmacs region is not deactivated when an error is signaled.
59 The behavior of the zmacs region can now be controlled in the event of
60 a signaled error. The new variable `errors-deactivate-region' may be
61 set to nil to revert to the old behaviour. As before, typing C-g
62 deactivates the region.
64 ** Multiple Info `dir' functionality has been merged with GNU Emacs
67 XEmacs will now correctly merge all the `dir' files in
68 `Info-directory-list' (initialized from either the `INFOPATH'
69 env. variable or `Info-default-directory-list'.) These files may be
70 full-fledged info files containing subnodes or menus. Previously
71 supported `localdir' files are looked for also, secondary to `dir's.
72 See the manual for details.
74 ** Abbreviations can now contain non-word characters.
76 This means that it is finally possible to do such simple things as
77 define `#in' to expand to `#include' in C mode, `s-c-b' to
78 `save-current-buffer' in Lisp mode, `call/cc' to
79 `call-with-current-continuation' in Scheme mode, etc.
81 ** `C-x n d' now runs the new command `narrow-to-defun',
82 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
85 ** The new command `C-x 4 0' (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
86 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
89 ** `ESC ESC ESC' (keyboard-escape-quit) will now correctly abort
90 recursive edits (as documented.)
92 ** arc-mode has a new function called `archive-quit' bound to q, which
93 quits archive mode in the same fashion dired-quit works.
95 ** A `tetris' clone is now available within XEmacs, written by Glynn
96 Clements. Try it out with `M-x tetris'.
98 ** The feature to teach the key bindings of extended commands now
99 prints the message after the command finishes. After some time, the
100 previous echo area contents are restored (in case the command prints
103 ** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
104 move point a short distance off the screen, XEmacs will scroll the
105 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
106 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
108 ** Face background colors now take precedence over the default face
109 background pixmap, which means that background pixmaps no longer clash
110 with zmacs-regions, or clickable buttons.
112 ** Regexps can now contain additional Perl-like constructs.
114 ** Modifiers can be added to a keystroke by preceding it with a `C-x @
115 <x>' sequence where <x> is one of letters `S', `c', `m', `a', `h', `s'
116 corresponding to shift, control, meta, alt, hyper, and super modifiers,
117 respectively. It is possible to add several modifiers by repeating this
118 sequence. This feature is especially useful on text terminals where it
119 allows one to enter keystrokes like, e.g., `M-home'.
121 ** An arbitrary keystroke can be generated by entering `C-x @ k
122 <keysym-name> RET'. For example a sequence:
124 C-x @ c C-x @ k b a c k s p a c e RET
126 will result in a `C-backspace' keystroke even on text terminals.
128 ** Customize changes.
130 *** Customize has undergone a massive speedup, and should now operate
131 acceptably fast. Slowness of the interface used to be the biggest
134 *** Many more packages have been modified to use the facility, so
135 almost all of XEmacs options can now be examined through the Customize
138 *** There is a new `browser' mode of traversing customizations, in
139 many ways easier to follow than the standard one. Try it out with
140 `M-x customize-browse'.
142 ** Pending-delete changes.
144 *** Pending-delete is now a minor mode, with the normal minor-mode
145 semantics and toggle functions. Old functions are left for
148 *** Loading pending-del no longer turns on pending-delete mode. In
149 fact, it is no longer necessary to explicitly load pending-del. All
150 you need to do to turn on pending-delete is run the pending-delete
153 Within XEmacs: Type M-x pending-delete <ret>
154 not M-x load-library <ret> pending-delete <ret>
156 In .emacs: Use (turn-on-pending-delete)
157 not (load "pending-del")
159 ** XEmacs can now save the minibuffer histories from various
160 minibuffers. To use this feature, add the line:
164 to your .emacs. This will load the minibuffer histories (if any) at
165 startup, as well as instruct XEmacs to save them before exiting. You
166 can use Customize to add or remove the histories being saved.
168 ** The default format for ChangeLog entries (as created by `C-x 4 a')
169 is now the international ISO 8601 format.
171 To revert to the old behaviour, use:
173 (setq add-log-time-format 'current-time-string)
175 Or `M-x customize RET add-log RET'.
177 ** In ChangeLog mode, you can now press `C-c C-c' to save the file
178 and restore old window configuration, or `C-c C-k' to abandon the
181 ** The key `C-x m' no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
182 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
183 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
184 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
185 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
188 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
189 compose-mail-other-frame.
191 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file, if there are any
192 registers that save positions in the file, these register values no
193 longer become completely useless. If you try to go to such a register
194 with `C-x j', then you are asked whether to visit the file again. If
195 you say yes, it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
197 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
198 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
199 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
200 you visit the file afresh with `C-x C-f'.
202 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
203 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
204 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
205 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
206 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
210 *** The Lisp part of gnuserv has been rewritten to allow for more
211 flexibility and features.
213 *** Many new options and variables are now customizable. Try
214 `M-x customize RET gnuserv RET'.
216 *** The functionality of `gnuattach' and `gnudoit' programs is
217 provided by `gnuclient', which now accepts the standard `-nw',
218 `-display', `-eval' and `-f' options.
222 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
223 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
224 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
225 variables that are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
226 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
228 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
230 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
231 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
233 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
234 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
235 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
237 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
238 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
239 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
240 methods and protocols.
242 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
243 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
244 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
247 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
248 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
249 at least M times and as many as N times.
253 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
254 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
255 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
256 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
259 *** There are two new commands:
260 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
261 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
263 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
264 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
265 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
267 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
268 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
269 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
271 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
272 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
273 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
274 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
276 ** New demand based locking implementation
278 A faster, but experimental replacement for lazy-lock (called lazy-shot) is
279 provided. Like lazy-lock it provides demand based and idle time
280 font-lock-ing. However the lazy-lock versions that came with previous
281 versions slowed down XEmacs (possibly quite a lot). Lazy-shot solves
282 this problem by relying on new support from the C code part of XEmacs.
283 The support however is experimental and will cause some flashing as
284 parts of the buffer are colored. This likely to change in the future
285 as the C support is completed.
287 The current lazy-shot implementation is mostly interface compatible
288 with lazy-lock v2.06 (the version shipped with XEmacs is v1.x).
291 1. Despite the flashing, lazy-shot was deemed such an improvement by
292 the majority of beta testers that it is now the standard method
293 provided by the options menu. Alternatively add
295 (add-hook 'font-lock-mode-hook 'turn-on-lazy-shot)
298 2. If you were using lazy-lock before, just replace all occurrences of
299 "lazy-lock" by "lazy-shot" in your '.emacs' file.
303 If prefer to use lazy-lock in stead of lazy-shot, put
305 (remove-hook 'font-lock-mode-hook 'turn-on-lazy-shot)
306 (add-hook 'font-lock-mode-hook 'turn-on-lazy-lock)
308 at the END of `.emacs'.
312 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label{}, \ref{}
313 and \cite{} macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
314 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
315 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
316 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
319 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
320 knows which kind of label is needed.
322 C-c ) reftex-reference
323 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
324 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
326 C-c [ reftex-citation
327 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
328 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
330 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
331 Views the cross reference of a \ref{} or \cite{} command near point.
334 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
335 can quickly jump to every section.
337 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
338 commands. Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
339 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view this information:
340 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
343 * Lisp and internal changes in XEmacs 20.3
344 ==========================================
346 ** Autoconf 2 is supported, making XEmacs more conforming to
347 conventions used by other free software.
349 ** `tty-erase-char' is a new variable that reports which character
350 was set up as the terminal's erase character at the time Emacs was
353 ** It is now possible to attach the menubar accelerator keys to menu
354 entries. Look at the Lispref under Menus->Menu Accelerators for
357 ** `insert-file-contents' can now read from a special file,
358 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
360 ** `string-to-number' now accepts an optional BASE argument that
361 specifies which base to use. The default base is 10.
363 ** The TIME argument to `format-time-string' is now optional and
364 defaults to the current time.
366 ** The PATTERN argument to `split-string' is now optional and defaults
367 to whitespace ("[ \f\t\n\r\v]+").
369 ** `set-extent-properties' is a new function that can be used to
370 change properties of an extent at once, and is analogous to
371 `set-frame-properties'.
373 ** If a format field width is specified as `*', the field width is
374 now assumed to have been specified as an argument (as in C.)
376 (format "%*s" 10 "abc")
379 ** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
380 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
382 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
384 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
385 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
386 The old `eval-in-buffer' macro is obsoleted by `with-current-buffer'.
388 ** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
389 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
390 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
391 works using `save-current-buffer'.
393 ** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
394 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
397 ** The variable `debug-ignored-errors' now works in XEmacs. It allows
398 one to ignore the debugger for some common errors, even when
399 `debug-on-error' is t. It has no effect when `debug-on-signal' is
402 ** The new function `current-message' returns the message currently
403 displayed in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
405 ** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
406 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
407 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. The same goes for
408 `expand-file-name'. That conversion is now done only in
409 `substitute-in-file-name'.
411 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
414 ** The regexp matcher has been extended to recognize the following
415 constructs, borrowed from Perl:
417 *** Additional quantifiers.
419 In addition to `*', `+' and `?', XEmacs now recognizes the following
422 \{n\} Match exactly n times
423 \{n,\} Match at least n times
424 \{n,m\} Match at least n but not more than m times
426 *** Non-greedy quantifiers.
428 Any of the standard quantifiers (`*', `+' and others) can now be
429 followed by an optional `?', which will make them become "non-greedy",
430 i.e. they will match as little text as possible. Note that the
431 meanings don't change, just the "gravity."
435 The \(?: ... \) groups things like \( ... \), but doesn't record the
436 context for backreferences or future use. This is useful when you
437 need a lot of groups for the sake of priorities, but actually want to
438 record only one or two.
440 ** The new function `regexp-opt' returns an efficient regexp to match
441 a string. The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This
442 function can be used where regexp matching or searching is intensively
443 used and speed is important, e.g., in Font Lock mode.
445 ** The featurep syntax has been extended to resemble the Common Lisp
446 one, as suggested by Erik Naggum.
448 *** The `xemacs' feature is defined in XEmacs by default.
450 *** The expression `#+fexp form' is equivalent to
451 (when (featurep fexp) form), only it is evaluated at read-time. Also,
452 `#-fexp form' is equivalent to (unless (featurep fexp) form).
454 *** In addition to symbols, a FEXP can also be a number, or a logical
455 operator. Here are some examples:
456 ;; evaluates to non-nil on XEmacs:
458 ;; evaluates to non-nil on XEmacs 20.3 or later:
459 (featurep '(and xemacs 20.03))
460 ;; evaluates to non-nil either on Emacs, or on XEmacs built without
462 (featurep '(or emacs (and xemacs (not x))))
466 * Changes in XEmacs 20.2
467 ========================
469 ** Why XEmacs 20.1 is called 20.2
471 Testing of XEmacs 20.1 revealed a number of showstopping bugs at the
472 very final moment. Instead of confusing the version numbers further,
473 the `20.1' designation was abandoned, and the release was renamed to
476 ** Delete/backspace keysyms have been separated
478 The Delete and Backspace keysyms are now no longer identical. A better
479 version of delbackspace.el has been added called delbs.el.
481 ** XEmacs 20.0 MULE API supported for backwards compatibility
483 XEmacs 20.2 primarily supports the MULE 3 API. It now also supports
484 the XEmacs 20.0 MULE API.
486 ** The logo has been changed, and the default background color is
487 now a shade of gray instead of the eye-burning white.
489 The sample .Xdefaults and .emacs files contain examples of how to
490 revert to the old background color.
492 ** Default modeline colors are now less of a color-salad.
494 ** The `C-z' key now iconifies only the current X frame. You can use
495 `C-x C-z' to get the old behavior.
497 On the tty frames `C-z' behaves as before.
499 ** The command `display-time' now draws a pretty image in the modeline
500 when new mail arrives. It also supports balloon-help messages.
502 ** Various commands that were previously disabled are now enabled, like
503 eval-expression (`M-:') and upcase-region (`C-x C-u')/downcase-region
506 ** It is now possible to customize the functions called by XEmacs toolbar.
508 Type `M-x customize RET toolbar RET' to customize it. Customizations
509 include the choice of functions for the buttons to invoke, as well as
510 a wide choice of mailers and newsreaders to invoked by the respective
513 ** `temp-buffer-shrink-to-fit' now defaults to nil.
515 There are unresolved issues regarding this feature, which is why the
516 XEmacs developers decided to disable it by default.
518 ** `ps-print-color-p' now defaults to nil.
520 This is because the new default background color is non-white. The
521 `Printing Options' in the `Options' menu now include an item that
522 enables color printing, and sets the white background.
524 ** `line-number-mode' should be used to get line numbers in the
525 modeline, and `column-number-mode' to get column numbers. Line
526 numbers now number from 1 by default.
528 ** font-lock-mode will now correctly fontify `int a, b, c;'
529 expressions in C mode.
531 ** The blinking cursor is always "on" during movement.
533 ** The XEmacs build process has been changed to make site
534 administration easier. See lisp/site-load.el for details.
536 ** Numerous causes of crashes have been fixed. XEmacs should now be
537 even more stable than before.
539 ** configure no longer defaults to using --with-xim=motif if Motif libraries
542 There are many bugs in the Xlib XIM support in X11R6.3.
544 ** A number of new packages are added, and many packages were
547 ** Gnus-5.4.52, courtesy of Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
549 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
551 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
554 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
555 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
557 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
560 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
562 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
564 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
566 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
567 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
568 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
570 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
572 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
574 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
575 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
577 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
578 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
579 used to pick articles.
581 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
582 another have been added.
584 `M-x gnus-change-server'
586 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
587 generating lines in buffers.
589 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
592 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
594 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
596 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
598 *** Scores can be decayed.
600 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
602 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
603 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
605 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
608 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
610 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
611 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
613 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
615 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
616 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
618 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
619 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
621 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
624 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
625 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
627 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
629 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
631 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
633 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
635 Use the `Y c' command.
637 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
639 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
641 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
643 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
644 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
646 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
648 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
650 ** Custom 1.86, courtesy of Per Abrahamsen
652 The Customize library enables Emacs Lisp programmers to specify types
653 of their variables, so that the users can customize them.
655 Invoke the customizations buffer using the menus (Customize is at the
656 top of the Options menu), or using commands `M-x customize',
657 `M-x customize-variable' and `M-x customize-face'. Customize can save
658 the changed settings to your `.emacs' file.
660 Customize is now the preferred way to change XEmacs settings. Tens of
661 packages have been converted to take advantage of the Customize
662 features, including Gnus, Message, Supercite, Psgml, Comint, W3,
663 cc-mode (and many other programming language modes), ispell.el,
664 ps-print.el, id-select.el, most of the programming language modes, and
667 See the "Lisp Changes" section later for a short description of why
668 and how to add custom support to your Lisp packages. Custom is also
669 documented in the XEmacs info manuals.
671 ** W3-3.0.86, courtesy of William Perry
673 Version 3 of Emacs/W3, the Emacs World Wide Web browser, has been
674 included. It is significantly faster than any of the previous
675 versions, and contains numerous new features.
677 ** AUCTeX-9.7k, courtesy of Per Abrahamsen
679 AUC TeX is a comprehensive customizable integrated environment for
680 writing input files for LaTeX using Emacs.
682 AUC TeX lets you run TeX/LaTeX and other LaTeX-related tools, such as
683 a output filters or post processor from inside Emacs. Especially
684 `running LaTeX' is interesting, as AUC TeX lets you browse through the
685 errors TeX reported, while it moves the cursor directly to the
686 reported error, and displays some documentation for that particular
687 error. This will even work when the document is spread over several
690 AUC TeX automatically indents your `LaTeX-source', not only as you
691 write it -- you can also let it indent and format an entire document.
692 It has a special outline feature, which can greatly help you `getting
693 an overview' of a document.
695 Apart from these special features, AUC TeX provides an large range of
696 handy Emacs macros, which in several different ways can help you write
697 your LaTeX documents fast and painless.
699 ** redo.el-1.01, courtesy of Kyle Jones
701 redo.el is a package that implements true redo mechanism in XEmacs
702 buffers. Once you load it from your `.emacs', you can bind the `redo'
703 command to a convenient key to use it.
705 Emacs' normal undo system allows you to undo an arbitrary number of
706 buffer changes. These undos are recorded as ordinary buffer changes
707 themselves. So when you break the chain of undos by issuing some
708 other command, you can then undo all the undos. The chain of recorded
709 buffer modifications therefore grows without bound, truncated only at
710 garbage collection time.
712 The redo/undo system is different in two ways:
714 *** The undo/redo command chain is only broken by a buffer modification.
716 You can move around the buffer or switch buffers and still come back
717 and do more undos or redos.
719 *** The `redo' command rescinds the most recent undo without
720 recording the change as a _new_ buffer change.
722 It completely reverses the effect of the undo, which includes making
723 the chain of buffer modification records shorter by one, to counteract
724 the effect of the undo command making the record list longer by one.
726 ** edmacro.el-3.10, courtesy of Dave Gillespie, ported to XEmacs by
729 Edmacro is a utility that provides easy editing of keyboard macros.
730 Originally written by Dave Gillespie, it has been mostly rewritten by
731 Hrvoje Niksic, in order to make it distinguish characters and integer,
732 as well as to adapt it to XEmacs keysyms.
734 Press `C-x C-k' to invoke the `edit-kbd-macro' command that lets you
735 edit old as well as define new keyboard macros. You can also edit the
736 last 100 keystrokes and insert them into a macro to be bound to a key
737 or named as a command. The recorded/edited macros can be dumped to
740 ** xmine.el-1.8, courtesy of Jens Lautenbacher
742 XEmacs now includes a minesweeper game with a full-featured graphics
743 and mouse interface. Invoke with `M-x xmine'.
745 ** efs-1.15-x5 courtesy of Andy Norman and Michael Sperber
747 EFS is now integrated with XEmacs, and replaces the old ange-ftp. It
748 has many more features, including info documentation, support for many
749 different FTP servers, and integration with dired.
751 ** mic-paren.el-1.3.1, courtesy of Mikael Sjödin
752 ** hyperbole-4.022, courtesy of Bob Weiner
753 ** hm--html-menus-5.3, courtesy of Heiko Muenkel
754 ** python-mode.el-2.90, courtesy of Barry Warsaw
755 ** balloon-help-1.06, courtesy of Kyle Jones
756 ** xrdb-mode.el-1.21, courtesy of Barry Warsaw
757 ** igrep.el-2.56, courtesy of Kevin Rodgers
758 ** frame-icon.el, courtesy of Michael Lamoureux and Bob Weiner
759 ** itimer.el-1.05, courtesy of Kyle Jones
760 ** VM-6.30, courtesy of Kyle Jones
761 ** OO-Browser-2.10, courtesy of Bob Weiner
762 ** viper-2.93, courtesy of Michael Kifer
763 ** ediff-2.65, courtesy of Michael Kifer
764 ** detached-minibuf-1.1, courtesy of Alvin Shelton
765 ** whitespace-mode.el, courtesy of Heiko Muenkel
766 ** winmgr-mode.el, courtesy of David Konerding, Stefan Strobel & Barry Warsaw
767 ** fast-lock.el-3.11.01, courtesy of Simon Marshall
768 ** lazy-lock.el-1.16, courtesy of Simon Marshall
769 ** browse-cltl2.el-1.1, courtesy of Holger Schauer
770 ** eldoc.el-1.10, courtesy of Noah Friedman
771 ** tm-7.105, courtesy of MORIOKA Tomohiko
772 ** verilog-mode.el-2.25, courtesy of Michael McNamara & Adrian Aichner
773 ** overlay.el, courtesy of Joseph Nuspl
774 ** live-icon.el-1.3, fixes courtesy of Karl Hegbloom
775 ** tpu-edt.el, fixes courtesy of R. Kevin Oberman
776 ** etags.c-11.86 Courtesy of F. Potortì
779 * Lisp and internal changes in XEmacs 20.2
780 ==========================================
782 ** `defcustom' and `defgroup' can now be used to specify types and
783 placement of the user-settable variables.
785 You can now specify the types of user-settable variables in your Lisp
786 packages to be customized by users. To do so, use `defcustom' as a
787 replacement for `defvar'.
789 For example, the old declaration:
791 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
792 "*non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
796 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
797 "*non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
801 From a package writer's point of view, nothing has been changed
802 However, the user can now type `M-x customize RET foo-blurgoze RET' to
803 customize the variable.
805 Other, more complex data structures can be described with `defcustom'
808 (defcustom foo-hairy-alist '((somekey . "somestring")
809 (otherkey . (foo-doit))
810 (thirdkey . [1 2 3]))
811 "*Alist describing the hairy options of the foo package.
812 The CAR of each element is a symbol, whereas the CDR can be either a
813 string, a form to evaluate, or a vector of integers.
814 New Emacs users simply adore alists like this one."
815 :type '(repeat (cons (symbol :tag "Key")
817 (vector (repeat :inline t integer))
821 The user will be able to add and remove the entries to the list in a
822 visually appealing way, as well as save the settings to his/her
825 Note that `defcustom' will also be included in GNU Emacs 19.35, and
826 that both XEmacs and GNU Emacs will be using it in the future.
827 Although the user-interface of customize may change, the Lisp
828 interface will remain the same. This is why we recommend that you use
829 `defcustom' for user-settable variables in your new Lisp packages.
831 ** The `read-kbd-macro' function is now available.
833 The `read-kbd-macro' function (as well as the read-time evaluated
834 `kbd' macro) from the edmacro package is now available in XEmacs. For
837 (define-key foo-mode-map (kbd "C-c <up>") 'foo-up)
839 is completely equivalent to
841 (define-key foo-mode-map [(control ?c) up] 'foo-up)
843 The `kbd' macro is preferred over `read-kbd-macro' function , as it
844 evaluates before compiling, thus having no loading overhead.
846 Using `kbd' is not necessary for GNU Emacs compatibility (GNU Emacs
847 supports the XEmacs-style keysyms), but adds to clarity. For example,
848 (kbd "C-?") is usually easier to read than [(control ??)]. The full
849 description of the syntax of keybindings accepted by `read-kbd-macro'
850 is documented in the docstring of `edmacro-mode'.
852 ** Overlay compatibility is implemented.
854 The overlay support in XEmacs is now functional. Written by Joe
855 Nuspl, the overlay compatibility library overlay.el is implemented on
856 top of the native XEmacs extents, and can be used as a GNU
857 Emacs-compatible way of changing display properties.
859 ** You should use keysyms kp-* (kp-1, kp-2, ..., kp-enter etc.)
860 rather than the old form kp_*. The new form is also compatible with
863 ** The keysyms mouse-1, mouse-2, mouse-3 and down-mouse-1,
864 down-mouse-2, and down-mouse-3 have been added for GNU Emacs
867 ** A new user variable `signal-error-on-buffer-boundary' has been
870 Set this to variable to nil to avoid XEmacs usual lossage of zmacs
871 region when moving up against a buffer boundary.
873 ** lib-complete.el was MULE-ized.
875 The commands `find-library', `find-library-other-window' and
876 `find-library-other-frame' now take an optional coding system
879 ** Experimental support for Lisp reader macros #-, #+.
881 The Common Lisp reader macros for feature test are now supported. This
882 feature is present for evaluation purposes and is subject to change.
884 ** `values' now has a setf method
886 ** The `eval-after-load' and `eval-next-after-load' functions are
889 ** A bug that prevented `current-display-table' to be correctly set
890 with `set-specifier' has been fixed.
892 ** The bug in easymenu which prevented multiple menus from being
893 accessible through button3 has been fixed.
895 You can now safely use easymenu to define multiple menu entries in a
896 compatible way, with the added menus accessible via button3 as local
899 ** Many bugs in the scrollbar code have been fixed.
901 ** First alpha level support of MS Windows NT is available, courtesy
902 of David Hobley and Marc Paquette.
904 ** Wnn/egg now has initial support Courtesy of Jareth Hein.
906 ** Some old non-working code has been removed until someone chooses
909 This includes much of the NeXTStep stuff. The VMS support is also
910 likely to be removed in the future.
912 ** Many files have been purged out of the etc/ directory.
914 If you still need the purged files, look for them in the GNU Emacs
918 * Major Differences Between 19.14 and 20.0
919 ===========================================
921 XEmacs 20.0 is the first public release to have support for MULE
922 (Multi-Lingual Emacs). The --with-mule configuration flag must be
923 used to enable Mule support.
925 Many bugs have been fixed. An effort has been made to eradicate all
926 XEmacs crashes, although we are not quite done yet. The overall
927 quality of XEmacs should be higher than any previous release. XEmacs
928 now compiles with nary a warning with some compilers.
930 -- Multiple character sets can be displayed in a buffer. The file
931 mule-doc/demo in the distribution contains a greeting in many
934 -- Although the Mule work is for all languages, particular effort has
935 been invested in Japanese, with particular focus on Japanese users
936 of Sun WorkShop. Many menubar labels have been translated into
937 Japanese. Martin Buchholz, the maintainer of MULE features within
938 XEmacs normally runs XEmacs in a Japanese language environment.
939 Some of the other contributors are Japanese, most importantly
940 Morioka Tomohiko, author of the TM package, providing MIME support
943 -- Input for complex Asian languages is supported via XIM, a mechanism
944 introduced in X11R5 to allow applications to get localized input
945 without knowledge of the language. The way XIM works is that when
946 the locale has a complex character set, such as Japanese, and extra
947 minibuffer-like status window appears attached to various
948 application windows, and indicates the status of the input method.
949 Composed input in XEmacs should work the same as with other
950 applications. If Motif and Mule support is configured into XEmacs,
951 then XIM support is automatically configured in as well.
953 -- TM (Tools for Mime) now comes with XEmacs. This provides MIME
954 (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) support for Mail and News.
955 The primary author is Morioka Tomohiko.
957 -- Japanese input can also be input using the `canna' input method.
958 This support was contributed by Morioka Tomohiko. Setting up canna
959 usually requires more user effort (and better knowledge of Japanese!)
960 than XIM, but provides a better-integrated input method.
962 -- A mini-tutorial on using Mule:
964 -- Every time data passes between XEmacs and the rest of the
965 environment, via file or process input or output, XEmacs must
966 convert between its internal multi-character representation and
967 the external representation (`coding system'). Many
968 difficulties with Mule are related to controlling these coding
971 -- file-coding-system, file-coding-system-for-read,
972 overriding-file-coding-system, and file-coding-system-alist
973 are used to determine the coding systems used on file input
976 -- For each process, (set-process-input-coding-system) and
977 (set-process-output-coding-system) determine the coding
978 system used for I/O from the process.
980 -- Many other things are encoded using pathname-coding-system:
981 -- file and directory names
982 -- window manager properties: window title, icon name
983 -- process names and process arguments
986 -- In many cases, you will want to have the same values for all
987 the above variables in many cases. For example, in a
988 Japanese environment, you will want to use the 'euc-japan
989 coding system consistently, except when running certain
990 processes that do byte-oriented, rather than
991 character-oriented I/O, such as gzip, or when processing Mail
992 or News, where ISO2022-based coding systems are the norm,
993 since they support multiple character sets.
995 -- To add support for a new language or character set, start by
996 trying to copy code in japanese-hooks.el.
998 -- The traditional pre-Mule data conversion is equivalent to the
999 'binary coding system under Mule. In this case all characters
1000 are treated as iso8859-1 (i.e. characters for English + Western
1001 European languages).
1003 -- many fileio-related commands such as find-file and write-file
1004 take an extra argument, coding-system, which specifies the
1005 encoding to be used with the file on disk. For example, here is
1006 a command that converts from the Japanese EUC to ISO2022 format:
1008 xemacs -batch -eval '(progn (find-file
1009 "locale-start.el.euc" (quote euc-japan)) (write-file
1010 "locale-start.el" nil (quote iso-2022-8-unix)))'
1012 Interactively, you can be prompted for a coding system by
1013 providing a prefix argument to the fileio command. In
1014 particular, C-u C-x C-f is a useful sequence to edit a file
1015 using a particular coding system.
1017 -- In an Asian locale (i.e. if $LANG is set to ja, ko, or zh),
1018 XEmacs automatically sets up a language environment assuming
1019 that the operating system encodes information in the national
1020 version of EUC, which supports English and the national
1021 language, but typically no other character sets.
1023 -- Command line processing should work much better now - no more order
1026 -- Many many package upgraded (thanks go to countless maintainers):
1028 -- ediff 2.64 (Michael Kifer)
1029 -- Gnus 5.2.40 (Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen)
1030 -- w3 3.0.51 (Bill Perry)
1031 -- ilisp 5.8 (Chris McConnell, Ivan Vasquez, Marco Antoniotti, Rick
1033 -- VM 5.97 (Kyle Jones)
1034 -- etags 11.78 (Francesco Potorti`)
1036 -- vhdl-mode.el 2.73 (Rod Whitby)
1037 -- id-select.el (Bob Weiner)
1038 -- EDT/TPU emulation modes should work now for the first time.
1039 -- viper 2.92 (Michael Kifer) is now the `official' vi emulator for XEmacs.
1040 -- big-menubar should work much better now.
1041 -- mode-motion+.el 3.16
1042 -- backup-dir 2.0 (Greg Klanderman)
1043 -- ps-print.el-3.05 (Jacques Duthen Prestataire)
1044 -- lazy-lock-1.15 (Simon Marshall)
1045 -- reporter 3.3 (Barry Warsaw)
1046 -- hm--html-menus 5.0 (Heiko Muenkel)
1047 -- cc-mode 4.322 (Barry Warsaw)
1048 -- elp 2.37 (Barry Warsaw)
1051 -- Many new packages have been added:
1052 -- m4-mode 1.8 (Andrew Csillag)
1053 -- crisp.el - crisp/brief emulation (Gary D. Foster)
1054 -- Johan Vroman's iso-acc.el has been ported to XEmacs by Alexandre Oliva
1055 -- psgml-1.01 (Lennart Staflin, James Clark)
1056 -- python-mode.el 2.83 (Barry Warsaw)
1057 -- vrml-mode.el (Ben Wing)
1058 -- enriched.el, face-menu.el (Boris Goldowsky, Michael Sperber)
1059 -- sh-script.el (Daniel Pfeiffer)
1060 -- decipher.el (Christopher J. Madsen)
1062 -- New function x-keysym-on-keyboard-p helps determine keyboard
1063 characteristics for key rebinding:
1065 x-keysym-on-keyboard-p: (KEYSYM &optional DEVICE)
1066 -- a built-in function.
1067 Return true if KEYSYM names a key on the keyboard of DEVICE.
1068 More precisely, return true if pressing a physical key
1069 on the keyboard of DEVICE without any modifier keys generates KEYSYM.
1070 Valid keysyms are listed in the files /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h and in
1071 /usr/lib/X11/XKeysymDB, or whatever the equivalents are on your system.
1073 -- Installed info files are now compressed (support courtesy of Joseph J Nuspl)
1075 -- (load-average) works on Solaris, even if you're not root. Thanks to
1078 -- OffiX drag-and-drop support added
1080 -- lots of syncing with 19.34 elisp files, most by Steven Baur
1083 * For older news and for alternate news (the ones dealing with XEmacs
1084 19.15 and 19.16), see the file ONEWS.