This covers my recent user-visible changes and adds some edits of previous entries, most notably the one for delete-key-deletes-forward. Index: etc/NEWS =================================================================== RCS file: /usr/CVSroot/XEmacs/xemacs/etc/NEWS,v retrieving revision 1.58.2.11 diff -u -r1.58.2.11 NEWS --- NEWS 1999/04/22 07:41:16 1.58.2.11 +++ NEWS 1999/05/10 07:53:54 ＠＠ -32,19 +32,19 ＠＠  * Changes in XEmacs 21.2 ======================== + ** `delete-key-deletes-forward' now defaults to t. -You won't notice any difference, unless you previously used the Delete -key to delete backwards, despite the presence (according to Xlib) of a -BackSpace key on the keyboard. - -If you have both a Delete and a Backspace key, then the BackSpace key -will delete backwards, and the Delete key will delete forwards (by -default). If you have only a Delete key (for example, you use an -older DEC and Sun keyboard, or you use a Linux distribution which has -both the keys labelled BackSpace and Delete (mistakenly?) generate a -Delete keysym), the Delete key will continue to delete backwards. If -you want the old behavior, just set the variable back to its old value -nil. + +`delete-key-deletes-forward' is the variable that regulates the +behaviour of the delete key on the systems that offer both a backspace +and a delete key. If set to nil, the key labeled "Delete" will delete +backward. If set to non-nil, the "Delete" key will delete forward, +except on keyboards where a "Backspace" key is not provided. + +Unless our implementation has bugs, the only reason why you would want +to set `delete-key-deletes-forward' to nil is if you want to use the +Delete key to delete backwards, despite the presence (according to +Xlib) of a BackSpace key on the keyboard. ** Interactive searching and matching case improvements. ＠＠ -144,8 +144,9 ＠＠ ** Lisp code handles circular lists much more robustly. Many basic lisp functions used to loop forever when given a circular -list. Now this is more likely to trigger a `circular-list' error. -Printing a circular list now results in something like this: +list, expecting you to C-g (quit) out of the loop. Now this is more +likely to trigger a `circular-list' error. Printing a circular list +now results in something like this: (let ((x (cons 'foo 'foo))) (setcdr x x) ＠＠ -153,8 +154,14 ＠＠ => (foo ... <circular list>) An extra bonus is that checking for circularities is not just -friendlier, but actually faster than checking for quit. +friendlier, but actually faster than checking for C-g. + +** The new form `ignore-file-errors', similar to `ignore-errors' may +be used as a short-hand for condition-case when you wish to ignore +file-related error. For example: + (ignore-file-errors (delete-file "foo")) + ** The arguments to `locate-file' are now much more "lispy". As before, the usage is: ＠＠ -167,6 +174,30 ＠＠ details. Of course, the old form is still accepted for backward compatibility. + +** The `keywordp' function now returns non-nil only on symbols +interned in the global obarray. For example: + + (keywordp (intern ":foo" [0])) + => nil + (keywordp (intern ":foo")) ; The same as (keywordp :foo) + => t + +This behaviour is compatible with other code which treats symbols +beginning with colon as keywords only if they are interned in the +global obarray. `keyword' used to wrongly return t in both cases +above. + +** The first argument to `intern-soft' may now also be a symbol, like +with `unintern'. If given a symbol, `intern-soft' will look for that +exact symbol rather than for any string. This is useful when you want +to check whether a specific symbol is interned in an obarray, e.g.: + + (intern "foo") + (intern-soft "foo") + => foo + (intern-soft (make-symbol "foo")) + => nil ** Functions for decoding base64 encoding are now available; see `base64-encode-region', `base64-encode-string', `base64-decode-region'