GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. Copyright (C) 2017-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc. See the end of the file for license conditions. Please send Emacs bug reports to 'bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org'. If possible, use 'M-x report-emacs-bug'. This file is about changes in Emacs version 28. See file HISTORY for a list of GNU Emacs versions and release dates. See files NEWS.27, NEWS.26, ..., NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions. You can narrow news to a specific version by calling 'view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing 'C-u C-h C-n'. Temporary note: +++ indicates that all relevant manuals in doc/ have been updated. --- means no change in the manuals is needed. When you add a new item, use the appropriate mark if you are sure it applies, and please also update docstrings as needed. * Installation Changes in Emacs 28.1 ** Cairo graphics library is now used by default if found. '--with-cairo' is now the default, if the appropriate development files are found by 'configure'. Note that building with Cairo means using Pango instead of libXFT for font support. Since Pango 1.44 has removed support for bitmapped fonts, this may require you to adjust your font settings. Note also that 'FontBackend' settings in ".Xdefaults" or ".Xresources", or 'font-backend' frame parameter settings in your init files, may need to be adjusted, as 'xft' is no longer a valid backend when using Cairo. Use 'ftcrhb' if your Emacs was built with HarfBuzz text shaping support, and 'ftcr' otherwise. You can determine this by checking 'system-configuration-features'. The 'ftcr' backend will still be available when HarfBuzz is supported, but will not be used by default. We strongly recommend building with HarBuzz support. 'x' is still a valid backend. --- ** Building without double buffering support. configure --with-xdbe=no can now be used to disable double buffering at build time. --- ** 'configure' now warns about building with libXft support. libXft is unmaintained, and causes a number of problems with modern fonts including but not limited to crashes; support for it may be removed in a future version of Emacs. Please consider using Cairo + HarfBuzz instead. --- ** 'configure' now warns about not using HarfBuzz if using Cairo. We want to encourage people to use the most modern font features available, and this is the Cairo graphics library + HarfBuzz for font shaping, so 'configure' now recommends that combination. --- ** The ftx font backend driver has been removed. It was declared obsolete in Emacs 27.1. --- ** Support for building with '-fcheck-pointer-bounds' has been removed. GCC has withdrawn the '-fcheck-pointer-bounds' option and support for its implementation has been removed from the Linux kernel. --- ** Emacs no longer supports old OpenBSD systems. OpenBSD 5.3 and older releases are no longer supported, as they lack proper pty support that Emacs needs. * Startup Changes in Emacs 28.1 ** Emacs can support 24-bit color TTY without terminfo database. If your text-mode terminal supports 24-bit true color, but your system lacks the terminfo database, you can instruct Emacs to support 24-bit true color by setting 'COLORTERM=truecolor' in the environment. This is useful on systems such as FreeBSD which ships only with "etc/termcap". * Changes in Emacs 28.1 +++ ** New variables that hold default buffer names for shell output. The new constants 'shell-command-buffer-name' and 'shell-command-buffer-name-async' store the default buffer names for the output of, respectively, synchronous and async shell commands. ** Support for '(box . SIZE)' 'cursor-type'. By default, 'box' cursor always has a filled box shape. But if you specify 'cursor-type' to be '(box . SIZE)', the cursor becomes a hollow box if the point is on an image larger than 'SIZE' pixels in any dimension. +++ ** New custom option 'word-wrap-by-category'. When word-wrap is enabled, and this option is non-nil, that allows Emacs to break lines after more characters than just whitespace characters. In particular, this significantly improves word-wrapping for CJK text mixed with Latin text. --- *** Improved language transliteration in Malayalam input methods. Added a new Mozhi scheme. The inapplicable ITRANS scheme is now deprecated. Errors in the Inscript method were corrected. --- ** Rudimentary support for the 'st' terminal emulator. Emacs now supports 256 color display on the 'st' terminal emulator. --- ** Mouse wheel scrolling now works on more parts of frame's display. When using 'mwheel-mode', the mouse wheel will now scroll also when the mouse cursor is on the scroll bars, fringes, margins, header line, and mode line. ('mwheel-mode' is enabled by default on most graphical displays.) * Editing Changes in Emacs 28.1 --- ** 'eval-expression' now no longer signals an error on incomplete expressions. Previously, typing 'M-: ( RET' would result in Emacs saying "End of file during parsing" and dropping out of the minibuffer. The user would have to type 'M-: M-p' to edit and redo the expression. Now Emacs will echo the message and allow the user to continue editing. +++ ** New command 'undo-redo'. It undoes previous undo commands, but doesn't record itself as an undoable command. +++ ** 'read-number' now has its own history variable. Additionally, the function now accepts a HIST argument which can be used to specify a custom history variable. +++ ** Input history for 'goto-line' is now local to every buffer. Each buffer will keep a separate history of line numbers used with 'goto-line'. This should help making faster the process of finding line numbers that were previously jumped to. +++ ** When 'suggest-key-bindings' is non-nil, the completion list of 'M-x' shows equivalent key bindings for all commands that have them. --- ** Movement commands in 'gomoku-mode' are fixed. 'gomoku-move-sw' and 'gomoku-move-ne' now work correctly, and horizontal movements now stop at the edge of the board. ** Autosaving via 'auto-save-visited-mode' can now be inhibited by setting the variable 'auto-save-visited-mode' buffer-locally to nil. ** New commands to describe buttons and widgets have been added. 'widget-describe' (on a widget) will pop up a help buffer and give a description of the properties. Likewise 'button-describe' does the same for a button. * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 28.1 ** Windows *** The key prefix 'C-x 4 1' displays next command buffer in the same window. It's bound to the command 'same-window-prefix' that requests the buffer of the next command to be displayed in the same window. *** The key prefix 'C-x 4 4' displays next command buffer in a new window. It's bound to the command 'other-window-prefix' that requests the buffer of the next command to be displayed in a new window. ** Frames *** The key prefix 'C-x 5 5' displays next command buffer in a new frame. It's bound to the command 'other-frame-prefix' that requests the buffer of the next command to be displayed in a new frame. ** Tab Bars *** The key prefix 'C-x t t' displays next command buffer in a new tab. It's bound to the command 'other-tab-prefix' that requests the buffer of the next command to be displayed in a new tab. *** The tab bar is frame-local when 'tab-bar-show' is a number. Show/hide the tab bar independently for each frame, according to the value of 'tab-bar-show'. ** New bindings in occur-mode, 'next-error-no-select' bound to 'n' and 'previous-error-no-select' bound to 'p'. ** EIEIO +++ *** The macro 'oref-default' can now be used with 'setf'. It is now defined as a generalized variable that can be used with 'setf' to modify the value stored in a given class slot. ** New minor mode 'cl-font-lock-built-in-mode' for 'lisp-mode'. The mode provides refined highlighting of built-in functions, types, and variables. ** Archive mode *** Can now modify members of 'ar' archives. *** Display of summaries unified between backends. *** New user option 'archive-hidden-columns' and command 'archive-hideshow-column'. These let you control which columns are displayed and which are kept hidden. --- *** New command bound to 'C': 'archive-copy-file'. This command extracts the file under point and writes the data to a file. ** Emacs Lisp mode *** The mode-line now indicates whether we're using lexical or dynamic scoping. *** A space between an open paren and a symbol changes the indentation rule. The presence of a space between an open paren and a symbol now is taken as a statement by the programmer that this should be indented as a data list rather than as a piece of code. ** Calendar +++ *** New user option 'calendar-time-zone-style'. If 'numeric', calendar functions (eg 'calendar-sunrise-sunset') that display time zones will use a form like "+0100" instead of "CET". ** Dired *** '=' ('dired-diff') will now put all backup files into the 'M-n' history. When using '=' on a file with backup files, the default file to use for diffing is the newest backup file. You can now use 'M-n' to quickly select a different backup file instead. +++ *** New user option 'dired-maybe-use-globstar'. If set, enables globstar (recursive globbing) in shells that support this feature, but turn it off by default. This allows producing directory listings with files matching a wildcard in all the subdirectories of a given directory. The new variable 'dired-enable-globstar-in-shell' lists which shells can have globstar enabled, and how to enable it. +++ *** New user option 'dired-copy-dereference'. If set to non-nil, Dired will dereference symbolic links when copying. This can be switched off on a per-usage basis by providing 'dired-do-copy' with a 'C-u' prefix. *** New user option 'dired-mark-region' affects all Dired commands that mark files. When non-nil and the region is active in Transient Mark mode, then Dired commands operate only on files in the active region. The values 'file' and 'line' of this user option define the details of marking the file at the end of the region. *** State changing VC operations are supported in Dired on files and directories with the help of new command 'dired-vc-next-action'. ** Change Logs and VC *** More VC commands can be used from non-file buffers. The relevant commands are those that don't change the VC state. The non-file buffers which can use VC commands are those that have their 'default-directory' under VC. *** New command 'vc-dir-root' uses the root directory without asking. *** New commands 'vc-dir-mark-registered-files' (bound to '* r') and 'vc-dir-mark-unregistered-files'. *** Support for bookmark.el. Bookmark locations can refer to VC directory buffers. --- *** New user option 'vc-hg-create-bookmark'. It controls whether a bookmark or branch will be created when you invoke 'C-u C-x v s' ('vc-create-tag'). --- *** 'vc-hg' now uses 'hg summary' to populate extra 'vc-dir' headers. --- *** New variable 'vc-git-revision-complete-only-branches'. If non-nil, only branches and remotes are considered when doing completion over Git branch names. The default is nil, which causes tags to be considered as well. ** Gnus +++ *** New option 'gnus-dbus-close-on-sleep' On systems with D-Bus support, it is now possible to register a signal to close all Gnus servers before the system sleeps. +++ *** The key binding of 'gnus-summary-search-article-forward' has changed. This command was previously on 'M-s' and shadowed the global 'M-s' search prefix. The command has now been moved to 'M-s M-s'. (For consistency, the 'M-s M-r' key binding has been added for the 'gnus-summary-search-article-backward' command.) --- *** The value of "all" in the 'large-newsgroup-initial' group parameter changes. It was previously nil, which didn't work, because nil is indistinguishable from not being present. The new value for "all" is the symbol 'all'. +++ *** The name of dependent Gnus sessions has changed from "slave" to "child". The names of the commands 'gnus-slave', 'gnus-slave-no-server' and 'gnus-slave-unplugged' have changed to 'gnus-child', 'gnus-child-no-server' and 'gnus-child-unplugged' respectively. +++ *** The 'W Q' summary mode command now takes a numerical prefix to allow adjusting the fill width. +++ *** New variable 'mm-inline-font-lock'. This variable is supposed to be bound by callers to determine whether inline MIME parts (that support it) are supposed to be font-locked or not. ** Message +++ *** Message now supports the OpenPGP header. To generate these headers, add the new function 'message-add-openpgp-header' to 'message-send-hook'. The header will be generated according to the new 'message-openpgp-header' variable. --- *** A change to how "Mail-Copies-To: never" is handled. If a user has specified "Mail-Copies-To: never", and Message was asked to do a "wide reply", some other arbitrary recipient would end up in the resulting "To" header, while the remaining recipients would be put in the "Cc" header. This is somewhat misleading, as it looks like you're responding to a specific person in particular. This has been changed so that all the recipients are put in the "To" header in these instances. +++ *** New function to start Emacs in Message mode to send an email. Emacs can be defined as a handler for the "x-scheme-handler/mailto" MIME type with the following command: "emacs -f message-mailto %u". An "emacs-mail.desktop" file has been included, suitable for installing in desktop directories like "/usr/share/applications". Clicking on a 'mailto:' link in other applications will then open Emacs with headers filled out according to the link, e.g. "mailto:larsi@gnus.org?subject=This+is+a+test". --- *** Change to default value of 'message-draft-headers' user option. The 'Date' symbol has been removed from the default value, meaning that draft or delayed messages will get a date reflecting when the message was sent. To restore the original behavior of dating a message from when it is first saved or delayed, add the symbol 'Date' back to this user option. +++ *** New command to take screenshots. In Message mode buffers, the 'C-c C-p' ('message-insert-screenshot') command has been added. It depends on using an external program to take the actual screenshot, and defaults to "ImageMagick import". ** Help +++ *** New command 'describe-keymap' describes keybindings in a keymap. --- *** The command 'view-lossage' can now be invoked from the menu bar. The menu-bar Help menu now has a "Show Recent Inputs" item under the "Describe" sub-menu. ** Ispell +++ *** 'ispell-comments-and-strings' now accepts START and END arguments, defaulting to active region when used interactively. +++ *** New command 'ispell-comment-or-string-at-point' is provided. --- ** The old non-SMIE indentation of 'sh-mode' has been removed. --- ** The sb-image.el library is now marked obsolete. This file was a compatibility kludge which is no longer needed. --- ** Lisp mode now uses 'common-lisp-indent-function'. To revert to the previous behavior, '(setq lisp-indent-function 'lisp-indent-function)' from 'lisp-mode-hook'. ** Edebug +++ *** Edebug specification lists can use the new keyword '&error', which unconditionally aborts the current edebug instrumentation with the supplied error message. *** Edebug specification lists can use the new keyword ':unique', which appends a unique suffix to the Edebug name of the current definition. +++ ** ElDoc *** New hook 'eldoc-documentation-functions'. This hook is intended to be used for registering doc string functions. These functions don't need to produce the doc string right away, they may arrange for it to be produced asynchronously. The results of all doc string functions are accessible to the user through the user option 'eldoc-documentation-strategy'. *** New user option 'eldoc-documentation-strategy'. The built-in choices available for this user option let users compose the results of 'eldoc-documentation-functions' in various ways, even if some of those functions are sychronous and some asynchchronous. The user option replaces 'eldoc-documentation-function', which is now obsolete. *** 'eldoc-echo-area-use-multiline-p' is now handled by ElDoc. The user option 'eldoc-echo-area-use-multiline-p' is now handled by the ElDoc library itself. Functions in 'eldoc-documentation-functions' don't need to worry about consulting it when producing a doc string. ** Eshell --- *** Environment variable 'INSIDE_EMACS' is now copied to subprocesses. Its value equals the result of evaluating '(format "%s,eshell" emacs-version)'. --- *** Eshell no longer re-initializes its keymap every call. This allows users to use (define-key eshell-mode-map ...) as usual. Some modules have their own minor mode now to account for these changes. ** EUDC +++ *** New macOS Contacts backend. This backend works on newer versions of macOS and is generally preferred over the eudcb-mab.el backend. ** Tramp +++ *** New connection method "media", which allows accessing media devices like cell phones, tablets or cameras. +++ *** New command 'tramp-crypt-add-directory'. This command marks a remote directory to contain only encrypted files. See the "(tramp) Keeping files encrypted" node of the Tramp manual for details. This feature is experimental. +++ *** Support of direct asynchronous process invocation. When Tramp connection property "direct-async-process" is set to non-nil for a given connection, 'make-process' and 'start-file-process' calls are performed directly as in "ssh ... ". This avoids initialization performance penalties. See the "(tramp) Improving performance of asynchronous remote processes" node of the Tramp manual for details, and also for a discussion or restrictions. This feature is experimental. ** Tempo --- *** 'tempo-define-template' can now re-assign templates to tags. Previously, assigning a new template to an already defined tag had no effect. ** map.el *** Pcase 'map' pattern added keyword symbols abbreviation. A pattern like '(map :sym)' binds the map's value for ':sym' to 'sym', equivalent to '(map (:sym sym))'. ** Package +++ *** New functions to filter the package list. The filter command key bindings are as follows: key binding --- ------- / a package-menu-filter-by-archive / k package-menu-filter-by-keyword / n package-menu-filter-by-name / s package-menu-filter-by-status / v package-menu-filter-by-version / m package-menu-filter-marked / / package-menu-filter-clear --- *** Column widths in 'list-packages' display can now be customized. See the new user options 'package-name-column-width', 'package-version-column-width', 'package-status-column-width', and 'package-archive-column-width'. ** gdb-mi +++ *** gdb-mi can now store and restore window configurations. Use 'gdb-save-window-configuration' to save window configuration to a file and 'gdb-load-window-configuration' to load from a file. These commands can also be accessed through the menu bar under 'Gud -- GDB-Windows'. 'gdb-default-window-configuration-file', when non-nil, is loaded when GDB starts up. +++ *** gdb-mi can now restore window configuration after quit. Set 'gdb-restore-window-configuration-after-quit' to non-nil and Emacs will remember the window configuration before GDB started and restore it after GDB quits. A toggle button is also provided under 'Gud -- GDB-Windows'. +++ *** gdb-mi now has a better logic for displaying source buffers. Now GDB only uses one source window to display source file by default. Customize 'gdb-max-source-window-count' to use more than one window. Control source file display by 'gdb-display-source-buffer-action'. ** Gravatar --- *** New user option 'gravatar-service' for host to query for gravatars. Defaults to 'libravatar', with 'unicornify' and 'gravatar' as options. ** Compilation mode *** Regexp matching of messages is now case-sensitive by default. The variable 'compilation-error-case-fold-search' can be set for case-insensitive matching of messages when the old behavior is required, but the recommended solution is to use a correctly matching regexp instead. ** Hi Lock mode --- *** Matching in 'hi-lock-mode' is case-sensitive when regexp contains upper case characters and 'search-upper-case' is non-nil. 'highlight-phrase' also uses 'search-whitespace-regexp' to substitute spaces in regexp search. --- *** The default value of 'hi-lock-highlight-range' was enlarged. The new default value is 2000000 (2 megabytes). ** Whitespace mode +++ *** New style 'missing-newline-at-eof'. If present in 'whitespace-style' (as it is by default), the final character in the buffer will be highlighted if the buffer doesn't end with a newline. ** Texinfo --- *** New user option 'texinfo-texi2dvi-options'. This is used when invoking 'texi2dvi' from 'texinfo-tex-buffer'. --- *** New commands for moving in and between environments. An "environment" is something that ends with '@end'. The commands are 'C-c C-c C-f' (next end), 'C-c C-c C-b' (previous end), 'C-c C-c C-n' (next start) and 'C-c C-c C-p' (previous start), as well as 'C-c .', which will alternate between the start and the end of the current environment. ** Rmail --- *** New user option 'rmail-re-abbrevs'. Its default value matches localized abbreviations of the "reply" prefix on the Subject line in various languages. ** Apropos *** New commands 'apropos-next-symbol' and 'apropos-previous-symbol'. These new navigation commands are bound to 'n' and 'p' in 'apropos-mode'. *** New command 'apropos-function'. This works like 'C-u M-x apropos-command' but is more discoverable. ** CC Mode *** Added support for Doxygen documentation style. 'doxygen' is now a valid 'c-doc-comment-style' which recognises all comment styles supported by Doxygen (namely '///', '//!', '/** … */' and '/*! … */'. 'gtkdoc' remains the default for C and C++ modes; to use 'doxygen' by default one might evaluate: (setq-default c-doc-comment-style '((java-mode . javadoc) (pike-mode . autodoc) (c-mode . doxygen) (c++-mode . doxygen))) or use it in a custom 'c-style'. *** Added support to line up '?' and ':' of a ternary operator. The new 'c-lineup-ternary-bodies' function can be used as a lineup function to align question mark and colon which are part of a ternary operator ('?:'). For example: return arg % 2 == 0 ? arg / 2 : (3 * arg + 1); To enable, add it to appropriate entries in 'c-offsets-alist', e.g.: (c-set-offset 'arglist-cont '(c-lineup-ternary-bodies c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg)) (c-set-offset 'arglist-cont-nonempty '(c-lineup-ternary-bodies c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg c-lineup-arglist)) (c-set-offset 'statement-cont '(c-lineup-ternary-bodies +)) ** browse-url *** Added support for custom URL handlers. There is a new variable 'browse-url-default-handlers' and a user option 'browse-url-handlers' being alists with '(REGEXP-OR-PREDICATE . FUNCTION)' entries allowing to define different browsing FUNCTIONs depending on the URL to be browsed. The variable is for default handlers provided by Emacs itself or external packages, the user option is for the user (and allows for overriding the default handlers). Formerly, one could do the same by setting 'browse-url-browser-function' to such an alist. This usage is still supported but deprecated. *** Categorization of browsing functions in internal vs. external. All standard browsing functions such as 'browse-url-firefox', 'browse-url-mail', or 'eww' have been categorized into internal (URL is browsed in Emacs) or external (an external application is spawned with the URL). This is done by adding a 'browse-url-browser-kind' symbol property to the browsing functions. With a new command 'browse-url-with-browser-kind', an URL can explicitly be browsed with either an internal or external browser. *** Support for the conkeror browser is now obsolete. *** Support for the Mosaic browser has been removed. This support has been obsolete since 25.1. ** SHR --- *** The command 'shr-browse-url' now supports custom mailto handlers. Clicking on or otherwise following a 'mailto:' link in a HTML buffer rendered by SHR previously invoked the command 'browse-url-mailto'. This is still the case by default, but if you customize 'browse-url-mailto-function' or 'browse-url-handlers' to call some other function, it will now be called instead of the default. +++ *** New user option 'shr-max-width'. If this user option is non-nil, and 'shr-width' is nil, then SHR will use the value of 'shr-max-width' to limit the width of the rendered HTML. The default is 120 characters, so even if you have very wide frames, HTML text will be rendered more narrowly, which usually leads to a more readable text. Set this user option to nil to get the previous behavior of rendering as wide as the 'window-width' allows. If 'shr-width' is non-nil, it overrides this variable. ** Images --- *** Animated images stop automatically under high CPU pressure sooner. Previously, an animated image would stop animating if any single image took more than two seconds to display. The new algorithm maintains a decaying average of delays, and if this number gets too high, the animation is stopped. +++ *** The 'n' and 'p' commands (next/previous image) now respects dired order. These commands would previously display the next/previous image in alphabetical order, but will now find the "parent" dired buffer and select the next/previous image file according to how the files are sorted there. The commands have also been extended to work when the "parent" buffer is an archive mode (i.e., zip file or the like) or tar mode buffer. --- *** 'image-converter' is now restricted to formats in 'auto-mode-alist'. When using external image converters, the external program is queried for what formats it supports. This list may contain formats that are problematic in some contexts (like PDFs), so this list is now filtered based on 'auto-mode-alist'. Only file names that map to 'image-mode' are now supported. --- *** The background and foreground of images now default to face colors. When an image doesn't specify a foreground or background color, Emacs now uses colors from the face used to draw the surrounding text instead of the frame's default colors. To load images with the default frame colors use the ':foreground' and ':background' image attributes, for example: (create-image "filename" nil nil :foreground (face-attribute 'default :foreground) :background (face-attribute 'default :background)) This change only affects image types that support foreground and background colors or transparency, such as xbm, pbm, svg, png and gif. ** EWW +++ *** New Emacs command line convenience function. The 'eww-browse' command has been added, which allows you to register Emacs as a MIME handler for "text/x-uri", and will call 'eww' on the supplied URL. Usage example: "emacs -f eww-browse https://gnu.org". +++ *** 'eww-download-directory' will now use the XDG location, if defined. However, if "~/Downloads/" already exists, that will continue to be used. --- *** The command 'eww-follow-link' now supports custom mailto handlers. The function that is invoked when clicking on or otherwise following a 'mailto:' link in an EWW buffer can now be customized. For more information, see the related entry about 'shr-browse-url' above. ** Project *** New user option 'project-vc-merge-submodules'. *** Project commands now have their own history. Previously used project directories are now suggested by all commands that prompt for a project directory. +++ *** New prefix keymap 'project-prefix-map'. Key sequences that invoke project-related commands start with the prefix 'C-x p'. Type "C-x p C-h" to show the full list. +++ *** New commands 'project-dired', 'project-vc-dir', 'project-shell', 'project-eshell'. These commands run Dired/VC-Dir and Shell/Eshell in a project's root directory, respectively. +++ *** New command 'project-compile'. This command runs compilation in the current project's root directory. +++ *** New command 'project-switch-project'. This command lets you "switch" to another project and run a project command chosen from a dispatch menu. +++ *** New user option 'project-list-file'. ** json.el --- *** JSON number parsing is now stricter. Numbers with a leading plus sign, leading zeros, or a missing integer component are now rejected by 'json-read' and friends. This makes them more compliant with the JSON specification and consistent with the native JSON parsing functions. ** xml.el *** XML serialization functions now reject invalid characters. Previously 'xml-print' would produce invalid XML when given a string with characters that are not valid in XML (see https://www.w3.org/TR/xml/#charsets). Now it rejects such strings. ** erc --- *** The '/ignore' command will now ask for a timeout to stop ignoring the user. Allowed inputs are seconds or ISO8601-like periods like "1h" or "4h30m". --- *** ERC now recognizes 'C-]' for italic text. Italic text is displayed in the new 'erc-italic-face'. --- *** The erc-compat.el library is now marked obsolete. This file contained ERC compatibility code for Emacs 21 and XEmacs which is no longer needed. --- *** erc-match.el now supports 'message' highlight type (not including the nick). The 'erc-current-nick-highlight-type', 'erc-pal-highlight-type', 'erc-fool-highlight-type', 'erc-keyword-highlight-type', and 'erc-dangerous-host-highlight-type' variables now support a 'message' type for highlighting the entire message but not the sender's nick. ** Battery --- *** UPower is now the default battery status backend when available. UPower support via the function 'battery-upower' was added in Emacs 26.1, but was disabled by default. It is now the default value of 'battery-status-function' when the system provides a UPower D-Bus service. The user options 'battery-upower-device' and 'battery-upower-subscribe' control which power sources to query and whether to respond to status change notifications in addition to polling, respectively. --- *** A richer syntax can be used to format battery status information. The user options 'battery-mode-line-format' and 'battery-echo-area-format' now support the full formatting syntax of the function 'format-spec' documented under node "(elisp) Custom Format Strings". The new syntax includes specifiers for padding and truncation, amongst other things. ** bug-reference.el --- *** Bug reference mode auto-setup. If 'bug-reference-mode' or 'bug-reference-prog-mode' have been activated, their respective hook has been run and still 'bug-reference-bug-regexp' and 'bug-reference-url-format' aren't both set, it tries to guess appropriate values for those two variables. There are three guessing mechanisms so far: based on version control information of the current buffer's file, based on newsgroup/mail-folder name and several news and mail message headers in Gnus buffers, and based on IRC channel and network in rcirc and ERC buffers. All mechanisms are extensible with custom rules, see the variables 'bug-reference-setup-from-vc-alist', 'bug-reference-setup-from-mail-alist', and 'bug-reference-setup-from-irc-alist'. ** HTML Mode --- *** A new skeleton for adding relative URLs has been added. It's bound to the 'C-c C-c f' keystroke, and prompts for a local file name. --- ** Recentf The recentf files are no longer backed up. ** Calc --- *** The behavior when doing forward-delete has been changed. Previously, using the 'C-d' command would delete the final number in the input field, no matter where point was. This has been changed to work more traditionally, with 'C-d' deleting the next character. Likewise, point isn't moved to the end of the string before inserting digits. ** term-mode --- *** New user option 'term-scroll-snap-to-bottom'. By default, 'term' and 'ansi-term' will now recenter the buffer so that the prompt is on the final line in the window. Setting this new user option to nil inhibits this behavior. --- *** New user option 'term-set-terminal-size' If non-nil, the 'LINES' and 'COLUMNS' environment variables will be set based on the current window size. In previous versions of Emacs, this was always done (and that could lead to odd displays when resizing the window after starting). This variable defaults to nil. ** Miscellaneous +++ *** The user can now customize how \"default\" values are prompted for. The new utility function 'format-prompt' has been added which uses the new 'minibuffer-default-prompt-format' variable to format \"default\" prompts. This means that prompts that look like "Enter a number (default 10)" can be customized to look like, for instance, "Enter a number [10]", or not have the default displayed at all, like "Enter a number". (This requires that all callers are altered to user 'format-prompt', though.) --- *** New 'diff-mode' font locking face 'diff-error'. This face is used for error messages from diff. +++ *** New global mode 'global-goto-address-mode' This will enable 'goto-address-mode' in all buffers. --- *** 'C-s' in 'M-x' now searches over completions again. In Emacs 23, typing 'M-x' ('read-extended-command') and then 'C-s' (to do an interactive search) would search over possible completions. This was lost in Emacs 24, but is now back again. --- *** 'M-x report-emacs-bug' will no longer include "Recent messages" section. These were taken from the "*Messages*" buffer, and may inadvertently leak information from the reporting user. --- *** 'count-windows' now takes an optional parameter ALL-FRAMES. The semantics are as with 'walk-windows'. --- *** Killing virtual ido buffers interactively will make them go away. Previously, killing a virtual ido buffer with 'ido-kill-buffer' didn't do anything. This has now been changed, and killing virtual buffers with that command will remove the buffer from recentf. --- *** New variable 'ffap-file-name-with-spaces'. If non-nil, 'find-file-at-point' and friends will try to guess more expansively to identify a file name with spaces. --- *** Two new commands for centering in 'doc-view-mode'. The new commands 'doc-view-center-page-horizontally' (bound to 'c h') and 'doc-view-center-page-vertically' (bound to 'c v') center the page horizontally and vertically, respectively. --- *** Change in meaning of 'icomplete-show-matches-on-no-input'. Previously, choosing a different completion with commands like 'C-.' and then hitting 'RET' would choose the default completion. Doing this will now choose the completion under point instead. --- *** The width of the buffer-name column in 'list-buffers' is now dynamic. The width now depends of the width of the window, but will never be wider than the length of the longest buffer name, except that it will never be narrower than 19 characters. *** Bookmarks can now be targets for new tabs. When the bookmark.el library is loaded, a customize choice is added to 'tab-bar-new-tab-choice' for new tabs to show the bookmark list. ** xwidget-webkit mode *** New xwidget functions. 'xwidget-webkit-uri' (return the current URL), 'xwidget-webkit-title' (return the current title), and 'xwidget-webkit-goto-history' (goto a point in history). *** Pixel-based scrolling. The 'xwidget-webkit-scroll-up', 'xwidget-webkit-scroll-down' commands now supports scrolling arbitrary pixel values. It now treats the optional 2nd argument as the pixel values to scroll. *** New commands for scrolling. The new commands 'xwidget-webkit-scroll-up-line', 'xwidget-webkit-scroll-down-line', 'xwidget-webkit-scroll-forward', 'xwidget-webkit-scroll-backward' can be used to scroll webkit by the height of lines or width of chars. *** New user option 'xwidget-webkit-bookmark-jump-new-session'. When non-nil, use a new xwidget webkit session after bookmark jump. Otherwise, it will use 'xwidget-webkit-last-session'. ** Flyspell mode +++ *** Corrections and actions menu can be optionally bound to 'mouse-3'. When Flyspell mode highlights a word as misspelled, you can click on it to display a menu of possible corrections and actions. You can now easily bind this menu to 'down-mouse-3' (usually the right mouse button) instead of 'mouse-2' (the default) by customizing the new user option 'flyspell-use-mouse-3-for-menu'. ** Time --- *** 'display-time-world' has been renamed to 'world-clock'. 'world-clock' creates a buffer with an updating time display using several time zones. It is hoped that the new names are more discoverable. The following functions have been renamed: 'display-time-world' to 'world-clock' 'display-time-world-mode' to 'world-clock-mode' 'display-time-world-display' to 'world-clock-display' 'display-time-world-timer' to 'world-clock-update' The following user options have been renamed: 'display-time-world-list' to 'world-clock-list' 'display-time-world-time-format' to 'world-clock-time-format' 'display-time-world-buffer-name' to 'world-clock-buffer-name' 'display-time-world-timer-enable' to 'world-clock-timer-enable' 'display-time-world-timer-second' to 'world-clock-timer-second' The old names are now obsolete. * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 28.1 ** Lisp Data mode The new command 'lisp-data-mode' enables a major mode for buffers composed of Lisp symbolic expressions that do not form a computer program. The ".dir-locals.el" file is automatically set to use this mode, as are other data files produced by Emacs. ** hierarchy.el It's a library to create, query, navigate and display hierarchy structures. * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 28.1 ** In 'nroff-mode', 'center-line' is now bound to 'M-o M-s'. The original key binding was 'M-s', which interfered with I-search, since the latter uses 'M-s' as a prefix key of the search prefix map. ** 'vc-print-branch-log' shows the change log for BRANCH from its root directory instead of the default directory. * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 28.1 ** 'equal' no longer examines some contents of window configurations. Instead, it considers window configurations to be equal only if they are 'eq'. To compare contents, use 'compare-window-configurations' instead. This change helps fix a bug in 'sxhash-equal', which returned incorrect hashes for window configurations and some other objects. ** When its first argument is a string, 'make-text-button' no longer modifies the string's text properties; instead, it uses and returns a copy of the string. This helps avoid trouble when strings are shared or constants. --- ** The obsolete function 'thread-alive-p' has been removed. ** 'dns-query' now consistently uses Lisp integers to represent integers. Formerly it made an exception for integer components of SOA records, because SOA serial numbers can exceed fixnum ranges on 32-bit platforms. Emacs now supports bignums so this old glitch is no longer needed. --- ** The new function 'dns-query-asynchronous' has been added. It takes the same parameters as 'dns-query', but adds a callback parameter. ** The Lisp variables 'previous-system-messages-locale' and 'previous-system-time-locale' have been removed, as they were created by mistake and were not useful to Lisp code. ** The 'load-dangerous-libraries' variable is now obsolete. It was used to allow loading Lisp libraries compiled by XEmacs, a modified version of Emacs which is no longer actively maintained. This is no longer supported, and setting this variable has no effect. +++ ** The macro 'with-displayed-buffer-window' is now obsolete. Use macro 'with-current-buffer-window' with action alist entry 'body-function'. ** The metamail.el library is now marked obsolete. --- ** Some obsolete variable and function aliases in dbus.el have been removed. In Emacs 24.3, the variable 'dbus-event-error-hooks' was renamed to 'dbus-event-error-functions' and the function 'dbus-call-method-non-blocking' was renamed to 'dbus-call-method'. The old names, which were kept as obsolete aliases of the new names, have now been removed. --- ** Some libraries obsolete since Emacs 23 have been removed: ledit.el, lmenu.el, lucid.el and old-whitespace.el. --- ** Some functions and variables obsolete since Emacs 23 have been removed: 'GOLD-map', 'advertised-xscheme-send-previous-expression', 'allout-init', 'bookmark-jump-noselect', 'bookmark-read-annotation-text-func', 'buffer-menu-mode-hook', 'c-forward-into-nomenclature', 'char-coding-system-table', 'char-valid-p', 'charset-bytes', 'charset-id', 'charset-list' (function), 'choose-completion-delete-max-match', 'complete-in-turn', 'completion-base-size', 'completion-common-substring', 'crm-minibuffer-complete', 'crm-minibuffer-complete-and-exit', 'crm-minibuffer-completion-help', 'custom-mode', 'custom-mode-hook', 'detect-coding-with-priority', 'dirtrack-debug' (function), 'dirtrack-debug-toggle', 'dynamic-completion-table', 'easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings', 'epa-display-verify-result', 'epg-passphrase-callback-function', 'eshell-report-bug', 'eval-next-after-load', 'exchange-dot-and-mark', 'ffap-bug', 'ffap-submit-bug', 'ffap-version', 'file-cache-choose-completion', 'forward-point', 'generic-char-p', 'global-highlight-changes', 'hi-lock-face-history', 'hi-lock-regexp-history', 'highlight-changes-active-string', 'highlight-changes-initial-state', 'highlight-changes-passive-string', 'image-mode-maybe', 'imenu-example--name-and-position', 'ispell-aspell-supports-utf8', 'lisp-mode-auto-fill', 'locate-file-completion', 'make-coding-system', 'minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map', 'mouse-choose-completion', 'mouse-major-mode-menu', 'mouse-popup-menubar', 'mouse-popup-menubar-stuff', 'newsticker-groups-filename', 'non-iso-charset-alist', 'nonascii-insert-offset', 'nonascii-translation-table', 'password-read-and-add', 'pre-abbrev-expand-hook', 'princ-list', 'print-help-return-message', 'process-filter-multibyte-p', 'read-file-name-predicate', 'remember-buffer' (function), 'rmail-highlight-face', 'rmail-message-filter', 'set-coding-priority', 'set-process-filter-multibyte', 'shadows-compare-text-p', 'shell-dirtrack-toggle', 't-mouse-mode', 'term-dynamic-simple-complete', 'tooltip-hook', 'tpu-have-ispell', 'url-generate-unique-filename', 'url-temporary-directory', 'vc-arch-command', 'vc-default-working-revision' (variable), 'vc-mtn-command', 'vc-revert-buffer', 'vc-workfile-version', 'vcursor-toggle-vcursor-map', 'w32-focus-frame', 'w32-select-font'. * Lisp Changes in Emacs 28.1 +++ *** New function 'file-backup-file-names'. This function returns the list of file names of all the backup files of its file argument. +++ ** The 'count-lines' function now takes an optional parameter to ignore invisible lines. --- ** 'count-words' now crosses field boundaries. Originally, 'count-words' would stop counting at the first field boundary it encountered; now it keeps counting all the way to the region's (or buffer's) end. --- ** New function 'custom-add-choice'. This function can be used by modes to add elements to the 'choice' customization type of a variable. +++ ** New function 'file-modes-number-to-symbolic' to convert a numeric file mode specification into symbolic form. ** New macro 'dlet' to dynamically bind variables. ** The variable 'force-new-style-backquotes' has been removed. This removes the final remaining trace of old-style backquotes. ** The module header 'emacs-module.h' now contains type aliases 'emacs_function' and 'emacs_finalizer' for module functions and finalizers, respectively. ** Module functions can now install an optional finalizer that is called when the function object is garbage-collected. Use 'set_function_finalizer' to set the finalizer and 'get_function_finalizer' to retrieve it. ** Modules can now open a channel to an existing pipe process using the new module function 'open_channel'. Modules can use this functionality to asynchronously send data back to Emacs. ** 'file-modes', 'set-file-modes', and 'set-file-times' now have an optional argument specifying whether to follow symbolic links. ** 'parse-time-string' can now parse ISO 8601 format strings, such as "2020-01-15T16:12:21-08:00". --- ** The new function 'decoded-time-period' has been added. It interprets a decoded time structure as a period and returns the equivalent period in seconds. +++ ** The new function 'dom-remove-attribute' has been added. --- ** 'make-network-process', 'make-serial-process' ':coding' behavior change. Previously, passing ':coding nil' to either of these functions would override any non-nil binding for 'coding-system-for-read' and 'coding-system-for-write'. For consistency with 'make-process' and 'make-pipe-process', passing ':coding nil' is now ignored. No code in Emacs depended on the previous behavior; if you really want the process' coding-system to be nil, use 'set-process-coding-system' after the process has been created, or pass in ':coding '(nil nil)'. +++ ** 'open-network-stream' now accepts a ':coding' argument. This allows specifying the coding systems used by a network process for encoding and decoding without having to bind 'coding-system-for-{read,write}' or call 'set-process-coding-system'. +++ ** 'open-network-stream' can now take a ':capability-command' that's a function. The function is called with the greeting from the server as its only parameter, and allows sending different TLS capability commands to the server based on that greeting. +++ ** 'open-gnutls-stream' now also accepts a ':coding' argument. +++ ** New user option 'process-file-return-signal-string'. It controls, whether 'process-file' returns a string when a remote process is interrupted by a signal. +++ ** The behavior of 'format-spec' is now closer to that of 'format'. In order for the two functions to behave more consistently, 'format-spec' now pads and truncates based on string width rather than length, and also supports format specifications that include a truncating precision field, such as "%.2a". --- ** New function 'color-values-from-color-spec'. This can be used to parse RGB color specs in several formats and convert them to a list '(R G B)' of primary color values. * Changes in Emacs 28.1 on Non-Free Operating Systems --- ** On macOS, Xwidget is now supported. If Emacs was built with xwidget support, you can access the embedded webkit browser with 'M-x xwidget-webkit-browse-url'. Viewing two instances of xwidget webkit is not supported. *** Downloading files from xwidget-webkit is now supported. The new variable 'xwidget-webkit-download-dir' says where to download to. *** New functions for xwidget-webkit mode 'xwidget-webkit-clone-and-split-below', 'xwidget-webkit-clone-and-split-right'. *** New variable 'xwidget-webkit-enable-plugins'. +++ ** On macOS, Emacs can now load dynamic modules with a ".dylib" suffix. 'module-file-suffix' now has the value ".dylib" on macOS, but the ".so" suffix is supported as well. +++ ** On MS-Windows, Emacs can now toggle the IME. A new function 'w32-set-ime-open-status' can now be used to disable and enable the MS-Windows native Input Method Editor (IME) at run time. A companion function 'w32-get-ime-open-status' returns the current IME activation status. +++ ** On MS-Windows, Emacs can now use the native image API to display images. Emacs can now use the MS-Windows GDI+ library to load and display images in JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF formats. This support is enabled unless Emacs was configured '--without-native-image-api'. This feature is experimental, and needs to be turned on to be used. To turn this on, set the variable 'w32-use-native-image-API' to a non-nil value. Please report any bugs you find while using the native image API via 'M-x report-emacs-bug'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is part of GNU Emacs. GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with GNU Emacs. If not, see . Local variables: coding: utf-8 mode: outline paragraph-separate: "[ ]*$" end: