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