NEWS

GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.

Copyright (C) 2010-2014 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 24.

See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, 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 necessary updates to the manuals in doc/ are complete.
--- means no change in the manuals is needed.
When you add a new item, use the appropriate mark if you know it applies,
otherwise leave it unmarked.


* Installation Changes in Emacs 24.4

** Emacs can now be compiled with ACL support.
This happens by default if a suitable support library is found at
build time, like libacl on GNU/Linux.  To prevent this, use the
configure option `--disable-acl'.

** Emacs can now be compiled with file notification support.
This happens by default if a suitable system library is found at
build time.  To prevent this, use the configure option
`--with-file-notification-no'.  See below for file-notify features.
FIXME?  This feature is not available for the Nextstep port. (?)

---
** The configure option `--without-compress-info' has been generalized,
and renamed to `--without-compress-install'.  It now prevents compression
of _any_ files during installation.

---
** The configure option `--with-crt-dir' has been removed.
It is no longer needed, as the crt*.o files are no longer linked
specially.

---
** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
no longer created during installation.

** Emacs can be compiled with zlib support.
If this library is present (which it normally is on most systems), the
function `zlib-decompress-region' becomes available, which can
decompress gzip- and zlib-format compressed data.

---
** Emacs for NS (Mac OS X, GNUstep) can be built with ImageMagick support.
This requires pkg-config to be available at configure time.

** New Core Text based font backend for Mac OS X 10.5 and newer.
GNUstep and Mac OS X 10.4 use the old font backend.
To use the old backend by default, do on the command line:
% defaults write org.gnu.Emacs FontBackend ns


* Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4

+++
** When initializing `load-path', an empty element in the EMACSLOADPATH
environment variable (either leading, e.g., ":/foo"; trailing, e.g.,
"/foo:"; or embedded, e.g., "/foo::/bar") is replaced with the default
load-path (the one that would have been used if EMACSLOADPATH was unset).
This makes it easier to _extend_ the load-path via EMACSLOADPATH
(previously, EMACSLOADPATH had to specify the complete load-path,
including the defaults).  (In older versions of Emacs, an empty element
was replaced by ".", so use an explicit "." now if that is what you want.)

+++
** The -L option, which normally prepends its argument to load-path,
will instead append, if the argument begins with `:' (or `;' on MS Windows;
i.e., `path-separator').

+++
** If you use either site-load.el or site-init.el to customize the dumped
Emacs executable, any changes to `load-path' that these files make
will no longer be present after dumping.  To affect a permanent change
to `load-path', use the `--enable-locallisppath' option of `configure'.

+++
** The user option `initial-buffer-choice' can now specify a function
to set up the initial buffer.


* Changes in Emacs 24.4

+++
** New option `gnutls-verify-error', if non-nil, means that Emacs
should reject SSL/TLS certificates that GnuTLS determines as invalid.
(This option defaults to nil at present, but this is expected to change
in a future release.)

+++
** Emacs now supports menus on text-mode terminals.
If the terminal supports a mouse, clicking on the menu bar, or on
sensitive portions of the mode line or header line, will drop down the
menu defined at that position.  Likewise, clicking C-mouse-2 or
C-mouse-2 or C-mouse-3 on the text area will pop up the menus defined
for those locations.

If the text terminal does not support a mouse, you can activate the
first menu-bar menu by typing F10, which invokes `menu-bar-open'.

If you want the previous behavior, whereby F10 invoked `tmm-menubar',
customize the option `tty-menu-open-use-tmm' to a non-nil value.
(Typing M-` will always invoke `tmm-menubar', even if
`tty-menu-open-use-tmm' is nil.)

+++
** The *Messages* buffer is created in `messages-buffer-mode',
a new major mode, with read-only status.  Any code that might create
the *Messages* buffer should call the function `messages-buffer' to do
so and set up the mode.

** Emacs now supports ACLs (access control lists).
+++
*** Emacs preserves the ACL entries of files when backing up.
+++
*** New functions `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' get and set the ACL
entries of a file.  On GNU/Linux, the POSIX ACL interface is used via
libacl.  On MS-Windows, the NT Security APIs are used to emulate the
POSIX ACL interfaces.

** Multi-monitor support has been added.

*** New functions `display-monitor-attributes-list' and
`frame-monitor-attributes' can be used to obtain information about
each physical monitor on multi-monitor setups.

*** The functions `display-pixel-width' and `display-pixel-height' now
behave consistently among the platforms: they return the pixel width
or height for all physical monitors associated with the given display
as just they were on X11.  To get information for each physical
monitor, use the new functions above.  Similar notes also apply to
`x-display-pixel-width', `x-display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
`display-mm-height', `x-display-mm-width', and `x-display-mm-height'.

+++
** The cursor stops blinking after 10 blinks (by default) on X and NS.
You can change the default by customizing `blink-cursor-blinks'.

+++
** In keymaps where SPC scrolls forward, S-SPC now scrolls backward.
This affects View mode, etc.

** Help changes

+++
*** The command `apropos-variable' is renamed to `apropos-user-option'.
`apropos-user-option' shows all user options while `apropos-variable'
shows all variables.  When called with a universal prefix argument,
the two commands swap their behaviors.  When `apropos-do-all' is
non-nil, they output the same results.

+++
*** The key `?' now describes prefix bindings, like `C-h'.

*** The command `describe-function' has been extended for EIEIO.
Running it on constructors will show a full description of the
generated class.  For generic functions, it will show all
implementations together with links to the source.  The old commands
`describe-class', `describe-constructor' and `describe-generic' were
removed.

*** The command `quail-help' has been removed.
Use `C-h C-\' (`describe-input-method') instead.

** ImageMagick

+++
*** ImageMagick images now support the :max-width and :max-height keywords.

*** Some data types aren't auto-detected by ImageMagick.
Adding :format to `create-image' may help if the content type is in
the new variable `image-format-suffixes'.

** Frame and window changes

+++
*** New commands `toggle-frame-fullscreen' and `toggle-frame-maximized',
bound to <f11> and M-<f10>, respectively.

*** New command `frameset-to-register' is now bound to `C-x r f', replacing
`frame-configuration-to-register'.  It offers similar functionality,
plus enhancements like the ability to restore deleted frames.  The
command `frame-configuration-to-register' still exists, but is unbound.

+++
*** New hooks `focus-in-hook', `focus-out-hook'.
These are normal hooks run when an Emacs frame gains or loses input focus.

---
*** `split-window' is now a non-interactive function, not a command.
As a command, it was a special case of `C-x 2' (`split-window-below'),
and as such superfluous.  After being reimplemented in Lisp, its
interactive form was mistakenly retained.

+++
*** New option `scroll-bar-adjust-thumb-portion'.
Available only on X, this option allows to control over-scrolling
using the scroll bar (i.e. dragging the thumb down even when the end
of the buffer is visible).

** Lisp evaluation changes
+++
*** `eval-defun' on an already defined defcustom calls the :set function,
if there is one.

*** A zero prefix arg of `eval-last-sexp' (`C-x C-e'),
`eval-expression' (`M-:') and `eval-print-last-sexp' (`C-j') inserts
a list with no limit on its length and level (by using nil values of
`print-length' and `print-level'), and inserts additional formats for
integers (octal, hexadecimal, and character).

---
** `write-region-inhibit-fsync' now defaults to t in batch mode.

+++
** `cache-long-line-scans' has been renamed to `cache-long-scans'
because it affects caching of paragraph scanning results as well.
Also, it is now enabled by default.

---
** The option `set-mark-default-inactive' has been deleted.
This unfinished feature was introduced by accident in Emacs 23.1;
simply disabling Transient Mark mode does the same thing.

** The default value of `comment-use-global-state' is now t,
and this variable has been marked obsolete.

---
** `emacs-bzr-version' has been renamed to `emacs-repository-version',
and works for git too.

** New user options:

*** `read-regexp-defaults-function' defines a function to read regexps,
used by commands like `rgrep', `lgrep' `occur', `highlight-regexp', etc.
You can customize this to specify a function that provides a default
value from the regexp last history element, or from the symbol found
at point.

+++
*** `load-prefer-newer', affects how the `load' function chooses the
file to load.  If this is non-nil, then when both .el and .elc
versions of a file exist, and the caller did not explicitly specify
which one to load, then the newer file is loaded.  The default, nil,
means to always load the .elc file.


* Editing Changes in Emacs 24.4

** Indentation changes

+++
*** The behavior of `C-x TAB' (`indent-rigidly') has changed.
When invoked without a prefix argument, it now activates a transient
mode in which typing <left>, <right>, <S-left>, and <S-right> adjusts
the text indentation in the region.  Typing any other key resumes
normal editing behavior.

*** `electric-indent-mode' is enabled by default.

*** `tab-stop-list' is now implicitly extended to infinity by repeating
the last step.  Its default value is changed to nil, which means a tab
stop every `tab-width' columns.

** Filling changes

*** New command `cycle-spacing' cycles between spacing conventions:
having just one space, no spaces, or reverting to the original
spacing.  Like `just-one-space', it can handle or ignore newlines and
leave different number of spaces.

*** `fill-single-char-nobreak-p' prevents fill from breaking a line after
a 1-letter word, which is an error according to Polish and
Czech typography rules.  To globally enable this feature, evaluate:

  (add-hook 'fill-nobreak-predicate 'fill-single-char-nobreak-p)

+++
** Uniquify is enabled by default, with `post-forward-angle-brackets' style.

** New command `C-x SPC' (`rectangle-mark-mode') makes a rectangular region.
Most commands are still unaware of it, but kill/yank do work on the rectangle.

+++
** New option `visual-order-cursor-movement'.
If this is non-nil, cursor motion with arrow keys will follow the
visual order of characters on the screen: <left> always moves to the
left, <right> always moves to the right, disregarding the surrounding
bidirectional context.

** Register changes

*** All register commands can now show help with preview.

+++
*** New command `C-x C-k x' (`kmacro-to-register') stores keyboard
macros in registers.

*** New command `C-x r f' (`frameset-to-register').
See Changes in Emacs 24.4, above.

** New command `delete-duplicate-lines'.
When its arg ADJACENT is non-nil (when called interactively with C-u
C-u) it works like the utility `uniq'.  Otherwise by default it
deletes duplicate lines everywhere in the region without regard to
adjacency.  When its arg KEEP-BLANKS is non-nil (when called
interactively with C-u C-u C-u), duplicate blank lines are preserved.


* Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4

** More packages look for ~/.emacs.d/<foo> additionally to ~/.<foo>.
Affected files:
~/.emacs.d/timelog	replaces  ~/.timelog
~/.emacs.d/vip		replaces  ~/.vip
~/.emacs.d/viper	replaces  ~/.viper
~/.emacs.d/ido.last	replaces  ~/.ido.last
~/.emacs.d/kkcrc	replaces  ~/.kkcrc
~/.emacs.d/quickurls	replaces  ~/.quickurls
~/.emacs.d/idlwave	replaces  ~/.idlwave
~/.emacs.d/bdfcache.el	replaces  ~/.bdfcache.el
~/.emacs.d/places	replaces  ~/.emacs-places
~/.emacs.d/shadows	replaces  ~/.shadows
~/.emacs.d/shadow_todo	replaces  ~/.shadow_todo
~/.emacs.d/strokes	replaces  ~/.strokes
~/.emacs.d/notes	replaces  ~/.notes
~/.emacs.d/type-break	replaces  ~/.type-break
Also the following files used by the now obsolete otodo-mode.el:
~/.emacs.d/todo-do	replaces  ~/.todo-do
~/.emacs.d/todo-done	replaces  ~/.todo-done
~/.emacs.d/todo-top	replaces  ~/.todo-top

** Backtrace and debugger

*** The Lisp debugger's `e' command now includes the lexical environment
when evaluating the code in the context at point.  Hence, it now lets
you access lexical variables.

+++
*** New command `v' (`debugger-toggle-locals') displays local vars.

*** New minor mode `jit-lock-debug-mode' lets you use the debuggers on
code run via JIT Lock.

** Battery

---
*** Battery information via the BSD `apm' utility is now supported.

** Buffer Menu

*** `M-s a C-o' shows lines matching a regexp in marked buffers using Occur.

** Calendar and Diary

---
*** New faces `calendar-weekday-header', `calendar-weekend-header',
and `calendar-month-header'.

+++
*** New option `calendar-day-header-array'.

+++
*** New variable `diary-from-outlook-function', used by the command
`diary-from-outlook'.

---
*** The variable `calendar-font-lock-keywords' is obsolete.

** Calc

*** Calc by default now uses the Gregorian calendar for all dates, and
uses January 1, 1 AD as its day number 1.  Previously Calc used the
Julian calendar for dates before September 14, 1752, and it used
December 31, 1 BC as its day number 1; the new scheme is more
consistent with Calendar's calendrical system and day numbering.

*** The new variable `calc-gregorian-switch' lets you configure the
date when Calc switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
Nil, the default value, means to always use the Gregorian calendar.
The value (YEAR MONTH DAY) means to start using the Gregorian calendar
on the given date.

*** Support for ISO 8601 dates.

** CEDET

*** EDE

**** The cpp-root project now supports executing a compile command.
It can be set through the new :compile-command slot or the
buffer-local variable `compile-command'.

**** Better selection of include directories for the 'linux' project.
Include directories now support out-of-tree build directories and
target architecture auto-detection.

*** Semantic

**** Improved detection of used namespaces in current scope in C++.

**** Parsing of default values for variables and function arguments in C/C++.
They are also displayed by the summarize feature in the modeline.

**** Improved parsing of function pointers in C/C++.
This also includes parsing of function pointers as function arguments.

**** Parsing of C/C++ preprocessor macros which open new scope.
For example, this enables parsing of macros which open new namespaces.

**** Support for 'this' pointer in inline member functions in C++.

** cl-lib

*** New macro `cl-tagbody'.

+++
*** letf is now just an alias for cl-letf.

** CUA mode

*** CUA mode now uses `delete-selection-mode' and `shift-select-mode'.
Hence, you can now enable it independently from `transient-mark-mode',
`delete-selection-mode', and `shift-select-mode'.

*** `cua-highlight-region-shift-only' is now obsolete.
You can disable `transient-mark-mode' to get the same result.

*** CUA's rectangles can now be used via `cua-rectangle-mark-mode'.

** CFEngine mode

*** Support for completion, ElDoc, and Flycheck has been added.

*** The current CFEngine syntax is parsed from "cf-promises -s json".
There is a fallback syntax available if you don't have cf-promises or
if it doesn't support that option.

** Delete Selection mode can now be used without `transient-mark-mode'.

** Desktop

*** `desktop-auto-save-timeout' defines the number of seconds idle time
before auto-save of the desktop.

*** `desktop-restore-frames', enabled by default, allows saving and
restoring the frame/window configuration (frameset).  Additional options
`desktop-restore-in-current-display', `desktop-restore-reuses-frames'
and `desktop-restore-forces-onscreen' offer further customization.

+++
** Dired

*** New minor mode `dired-hide-details-mode' hides details.

** Eldoc Mode works properly in the minibuffer.

** Electric Pair mode

*** New option `electric-pair-preserve-balance', enabled by default.
If non-nil, pairing/skipping only kicks in when that help the balance
of parentheses and quotes, i.e. the buffer should end up at least as
balanced as before.

You can further control this behavior by adjusting the predicates
stored in `electric-pair-inhibit-predicate' and `electric-pair-skip-self'.

*** New option `electric-pair-delete-adjacent-pairs', enabled by default.
In `electric-pair-mode', the commands `backward-delete-char' and
`backward-delete-char-untabify' are now bound to electric variants
that delete the closer when invoked between adjacent pairs.

*** New option `electric-pair-open-newline-between-pairs', enabled by default.
In `electric-pair-mode', inserting a newline between adjacent pairs
opens an extra newline after point, which is indented if
`electric-indent-mode' is also set.

*** New option `electric-pair-skip-whitespace', enabled by default.
This controls if skipping over closing delimiters should jump over any
whitespace slack.  Setting it to `chomp' makes it delete this
whitespace.  See also the variable `electric-pair-skip-whitespace-chars'.

*** New variables control the pairing in strings and comments.
You can customize `electric-pair-text-pairs' and
`electric-pair-text-syntax-table' to tweak pairing behavior inside
strings and comments.

** EPA

*** New option `epa-mail-aliases'.
You can set this to a list of alias expansions for keys to use
in `epa-mail-encrypt'.

If one element of the variable's value is ("foo@bar.com" "foo@hello.org"),
that means: when one of the recipients of the message being encrypted
is `foo@bar.com', encrypt the message for `foo@hello.org' instead.

If one element of the variable's value is ("foo@bar.com"),
that means: when one of the recipients of the message being encrypted
is `foo@bar.com', ignore that name as regards encryption.
This is useful to avoid a query when you have no key for that name.

** ERC

*** New option `erc-accidental-paste-threshold-seconds'.
If set to a number, this can be used to avoid accidentally pasting large
amounts of data into the ERC input.

+++
** New ERT macro `skip-unless' allows skipping ERT tests.
See the ERT manual for details.

** Eshell

+++
*** `eshell' now supports visual subcommands and options.
Eshell has been able to handle "visual" commands (interactive,
non-line oriented commands such as top that require display
capabilities not provided by eshell) by running them in an Emacs
terminal emulator.  See `eshell-visual-commands'.

This feature has been extended to subcommands and options that make a
usually line-oriented command a visual command.  Typical examples are
"git log" and "git <command> --help", which display their output in a
pager by default.  See `eshell-visual-subcommands' and
`eshell-visual-options'.

---
*** New Eshell-Tramp module.
External su and sudo commands are now the default; the internal,
Tramp-using variants can still be used by enabling the eshell-tramp
module.

** F90 mode
---
*** New option `f90-smart-end-names'.

** Icomplete is a bit more like Ido.

*** Key bindings to navigate through and select the completions.

*** The icomplete-separator is customizable, and its default has changed.

*** Removed `icomplete-show-key-bindings'.

*** Icomplete-mode by defaults applies to all forms of minibuffer completion.
(setq icomplete-with-completion-tables '(internal-complete-buffer))
will revert to the old behavior.

** Ido

*** Ido has a manual now.

*** `ido-use-virtual-buffers' takes a new value 'auto.

*** `ido-decorations' has been slightly extended to give a bit more control.

** Image mode

+++
*** New commands `n' (`image-next-file') and `p' (`image-previous-file')
visit the next image file and the previous image file in the same
directory, respectively.

+++
*** New commands to show specific frames of multi-frame images.
`f' (`image-next-frame') and `b' (`image-previous-frame') visit the
next or previous frame.  `F' (`image-goto-frame') shows a specific frame.

+++
*** New commands to speed up, slow down, or reverse animation.
`a +' (`image-increase-speed') and `a -' (`image-decrease-speed') to
speed up and slow down the animation.  `a r' (`image-reverse-speed')
to reverse it and `a 0' (`image-reset-speed') to reset it.

---
*** The command `image-mode-fit-frame' deletes other windows.
When toggling, it restores the frame's previous window configuration.
It also has an optional frame argument, which can be used by Lisp
callers to fit the image to a frame other than the selected frame.

** Hi-Lock

*** New option `hi-lock-auto-select-face'.  When non-nil, hi-lock commands
will cycle through faces in `hi-lock-face-defaults' without prompting.

+++
*** New global command `M-s h .' (`highlight-symbol-at-point')
highlights the symbol found near point without prompting,
using the next face automatically.

** New Imenu option `imenu-generic-skip-comments-and-strings'.

---
** New Info face `info-index-match', used to highlight matches in index
entries displayed by `Info-index-next', `Info-virtual-index' and
`info-apropos'.

** JS Mode

*** Better indentation of multiple-variable declarations.
If declaration spans several lines, variables on the following lines
are lined up to the first one.

*** We now recognize and better indent continuations in array
comprehensions.

*** New option `js-switch-indent-offset`.

** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.5.
See MH-E-NEWS for details.

+++
** Octave mode

*** Font locking for texinfo comments and new keywords.

*** Completion in Octave file buffers.

*** Eldoc support.

*** Jump to definition.

*** Documentation lookup/search.

** OPascal mode is the new name for Delphi mode.

*** All delphi-* variables and functions have been renamed to opascal-*.

*** `delphi-newline-always-indents' is not supported any more.
Use `electric-indent-mode' instead.

*** `delphi-tab' is gone, replaced by `indent-for-tab-command'.

** Package

*** The format of `archive-contents' files, generated by package
repositories, has changed to allow a new (fifth) element in the data
vectors, containing an associative list with extra properties.

*** `describe-package' buffer uses the `:url' extra property to
display a `Homepage' header, if it's present.

*** In the buffer produced by `describe-package', there are now buttons
listing the keywords related to that package.  You can click on them
to see other packages related to any given keyword.

*** In the *Packages* buffer, `f' or the Package->Filter menu filters
the packages by a keyword.

---
** In Prolog mode, `prolog-use-smie' has been removed,
along with the non-SMIE indentation code.

** Remember

*** The new command `remember-notes' creates a buffer that is saved on
`kill-emacs'.  You can think of it as a *scratch* buffer whose content
is preserved.  In fact, it was designed as a replacement for *scratch*
buffer and can be used that way by setting `initial-buffer-choice' to
`remember-notes' and `remember-notes-buffer-name' to "*scratch*".
Without the second change, the *scratch* buffer will still be there
for notes that do not need to be preserved.

*** The Remember package can now store notes in separates files.
You can use the new function `remember-store-in-files' within the
`remember-handler-functions' option.  See `remember-data-directory'
and `remember-directory-file-name-format' for new options related to
this function.

** Rmail

*** Customize `rmail-mbox-format' to influence some minor aspects of
how Rmail displays non-MIME messages.

---
*** The `unrmail' command now converts from BABYL to mboxrd format,
rather than mboxo.  Customize `unrmail-mbox-format' to change this.

** Ruby mode

*** New option `ruby-encoding-magic-comment-style'.

*** New option `ruby-custom-encoding-magic-comment-template'.

*** Improved syntax highlighting and indentation.

*** More Ruby file types have been added to `auto-mode-alist'.

*** New option `ruby-align-to-stmt-keywords'.

*** New `electric-indent-mode' integration.

** Search and Replace

+++
*** New global command `M-s .' (`isearch-forward-symbol-at-point')
starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search forward with the
symbol found near point added to the search string initially.

+++
*** `C-x 8 RET' in Isearch mode reads a character by its Unicode name
and adds it to the search string.

*** `M-s i' in Isearch mode toggles the variable `isearch-invisible'
between nil and the value of the option `search-invisible' (or `open'
when it's nil).

*** `query-replace' skips invisible text when `search-invisible' is nil,
and opens overlays with hidden text when `search-invisible' is `open'.

+++
*** A negative prefix arg of replacement commands replaces backward.
`M-- M-%' replaces a string backward, `M-- C-M-%' replaces a regexp
backward, `M-s w words M-- M-%' replaces a sequence of words backward.

+++
*** By default, prefix arguments do not now terminate Isearch mode.
Set `isearch-allow-prefix' to nil to restore old behavior.

+++
*** More Isearch commands accept prefix arguments, namely
`isearch-printing-char', `isearch-quote-char', `isearch-yank-word',
`isearch-yank-line'.

+++
*** Word search now matches whitespace at the beginning/end
of the search string if it contains leading/trailing whitespace.
In an incremental word search or when using a non-nil LAX argument
of `word-search-regexp', the lax matching can also match part of
the first word (in addition to the lax matching of the last word).
The same rules are now applied to the symbol search with the difference
that it matches symbols, and non-symbol characters between symbols.

+++
** New SES command `ses-rename-cell' allows assigning names to SES cells.

---
** The shell.el option `explcit-bash-args' includes --noediting by default.
All non-ancient Bash versions support this option.

** Shell Script mode

*** `sh-mode' now has its own setting for `add-log-current-defun-function'.

*** The SMIE indentation engine is now used by default.

** SMIE indentation can be customized via `smie-config'.
Emacs can learn the appropriate indentation settings if you provide it
with an indented sample file.

** New Term mode option `term-suppress-hard-newline'.

** Todo mode has been rewritten and enhanced.
New features include:
- support for multiple todo files and archive files of done items;
- renaming, reordering, moving, merging, and deleting categories;
- sortable tabular summaries of categories and the types of items they contain;
- cross-category lists of items filtered by specific criteria;
- more fine-grained interaction with the Emacs diary, by being able to decide
  for each todo item whether it appears in the Fancy Diary display;
- highly flexible new item insertion and item editing;
- moving items between categories, storing done items in their category or in
  archive files, undoing or unarchiving done items;
- reprioritizing items by inputting a numerical priority;
- extensive customizability of operation and display, including numerous faces.
The Todo mode user manual describes all commands and most user options.
To support some of these features, a new file format is used, which is
incompatible with the old format; however, you can convert old todo and done
item files to the new format on initializing the first new todo file, or at any
later time with the provided conversion command.  The old version of
todo-mode.el has been made obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.

** trace-function was largely rewritten.
New features include:
- no prompting for the destination buffer, unless a prefix-arg was used.
- additionally to prompting for a destination buffer, when a prefix-arg is
  used, the user can enter a "context", i.e. Lisp expression whose value at the
  time the function is entered/exited will be printed along with the function
  name and arguments.  Useful to trace the value of (current-buffer) or
  (point) when the function is invoked.

** Tramp

*** The experimental url syntax for remote file names has been removed.

+++
*** New connection method "adb", which allows to access Android
devices by the Android Debug Bridge.  The variable `tramp-adb-program'
can be used to adapt the path of the "adb" program, if needed.

*** The connection methods "plink1", "ssh1", "ssh2", "scp1", "scp2",
"scpc" and "rsyncc" are discontinued.  The ssh option
"ControlMaster=auto" is set automatically in all ssh-based methods,
when possible.

+++
*** Handlers for `file-acl' and `set-file-acl' for remote machines
which support POSIX ACLs.

+++
*** Handlers for `file-notify-add-watch' and `file-notify-rm-watch'
for remote machines which support filesystem notifications.

** New command `url-cookie-list' displays all the current cookies, and
allows deleting selected cookies.

** VC and related modes

+++
*** In VC directory mode, `D' displays diffs between VC-controlled
whole tree revisions.

+++
*** In VC directory mode, `L' lists the change log for the current VC
controlled tree in a window.

+++
*** In VC directory mode, `I' shows a log of changes that will be
received with a pull operation.

+++
*** `C-x v G' (globally) and `G' (in VC directory mode) ignores a file
under current version control system.  When called with a prefix
argument, you can remove a file from the ignored file list.

---
*** `cvs-append-to-ignore' has been renamed to `vc-cvs-append-to-ignore'
because it is moved to vc-cvs.el.

** VHDL mode

---
*** New options: `vhdl-actual-generic-name', `vhdl-beautify-options'.

---
*** New commands: `vhdl-fix-statement-region', `vhdl-fix-statement-buffer'.

** The Woman commands `woman-default-faces' and `woman-monochrome-faces'
are obsolete.  Customize the `woman-*' faces instead.

** Obsolete packages:

*** Iswitchb is made obsolete by icomplete-mode.

*** longlines.el is obsolete; use visual-line-mode instead.

+++
*** sup-mouse.el.

*** terminal.el is obsolete; use term.el instead.

*** The previous version of todo-mode.el is obsolete and renamed otodo-mode.el.

*** xesam.el is obsolete, because the XESAM project has been canceled.

+++
*** yow.el is obsolete; use fortune.el or cookie1.el instead.

---
*** The Info-edit command is obsolete.  Editing Info nodes by hand
has not been relevant for some time.


* New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.4

+++
** New package `eww' is a built-in web browser.
It is only available if Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support.

** New minor mode `superword-mode'.
This overrides the default word motion commands to treat "symbol_words"
as a single word, similar to what `subword-mode' does.

+++
** New package nadvice.el offers lighter-weight advice facilities.
It is layered as:
- add-function/remove-function which can be used to add/remove code on any
  function-carrying place, such as process-filters or `<foo>-function' hooks.
- advice-add/advice-remove to add/remove a piece of advice on a named function,
  much like `defadvice' does.

** New package frameset.el.
It provides a set of operations to save a frameset (the state of all
or a subset of the existing frames and windows, somewhat similar to a
frame configuration), both in-session and persistently, and restore it
at some point in the future.

+++
** New package filenotify.el provides an interface for file system
notifications.  It requires that Emacs be compiled with one of the
low-level libraries gfilenotify.c, inotify.c or w32notify.c.


* Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.4

---
** `kill-region' has lost its `yank-handler' optional argument.

+++
** `(input-pending-p)' no longer runs other timers that are ready to run.
The new optional CHECK-TIMERS parameter allows for the prior behavior.

+++
** `defvar' and `defcustom' in a let-binding affect the "external" default.

---
** The syntax of ?» and ?« is now punctuation instead of matched parens.
Some languages match those as »...«, and others as «...», so it is
better for Emacs to stay neutral by default.

---
** In compiled Lisp files, the header no longer includes a timestamp.

+++
** The default file coding for Emacs Lisp files is now utf-8.
(See `file-coding-system-alist'.)  In most cases, this change is
transparent, but files that contain unusual characters without
specifying an explicit coding system may fail to load with obscure
errors.  You should either convert them to utf-8 or add an explicit
`coding:' cookie.

+++
** `overriding-terminal-local-map' no longer replaces the local keymaps.
It used to disable the minor mode, major mode, and text-property keymaps,
whereas now it simply has higher precedence.

** Default process filters and sentinels are not nil any more.
Instead they default to a function that does what the nil value used to do.

+++
** `read-event' does not return decoded chars in ttys any more.
As was the case in Emacs 22 and before, the decoding of terminal
input, according to `keyboard-coding-system', is not performed in
`read-event' any more.  But unlike in Emacs 22, this decoding is still
done before input-decode-map, function-key-map, etc.

---
** The option `inhibit-local-menu-bar-menus' has been removed.

---
** Frame-local variables that affect redisplay do not work any more.
More specifically, redisplay does not bother to check for a frame-local
value when looking up variables.

+++
** nil and "unbound" are indistinguishable in `symbol-function'.
`symbol-function' does not signal a `void-function' error any more.
To determine if a symbol's function definition is void, use `fboundp'.

+++
** `defadvice' does not honor the `freeze' flag and cannot advise
special-forms any more.

---
** `dolist' no longer binds VAR while evaluating the RESULT form,
when lexical binding is enabled.  Previously, VAR was bound to nil,
which often led to spurious unused-variable warnings.