XEmacs Features

This section describes the difference between Emacs Version 18 and XEmacs.

General Changes

• XEmacs has a new vi emulation mode called evi mode. To start evi mode in Emacs, type the command M-x evi. If you want Emacs to automatically put you in evi-mode all the time, include this line in your `.emacs' file:

  (setq term-setup-hook 'evi)
  

  @xref{evi Mode} for a brief discussion.
• Earlier versions of Emacs only allowed keybindings to ASCII character sequences. XEmacs has greatly expanded this by allowing you to use a vector of key sequences which are in turn composed of a modifier and a keysym. See section Keystrokes, Key Sequences, and Key Bindings for more information.
• The keymap data structure has been reimplemented to allow the use of a character set larger than ASCII. Keymaps are no longer alists and/or vectors; they are a new primary data type. Consequently, code which manipulated keymaps with list or array manipulation functions will no longer work. It must use the functions define-key or map-keymap and set-keymap-parent (the new keymap functions). See section Customizing Key Bindings for more information.
• Input and display of all ISO-8859-1 characters is supported.
• Multiple fonts, including variable-width fonts, and fonts of differing heights, are supported.
• There is a new `tags' package and a new UNIX manual browsing package. They are similar to earlier versions; for more information look at the source code.
• There is a new implementation of Dired, with many new features. The online info for Dired, not the Dired node of Emacs info, provides more detail.
• GNUS (a network news reader), VM (an alternative mail reader), ILISP (a package for interacting with inferior Lisp processes), ANGE-FTP (a package for making FTP-accessible files appear just like files on the local disk, even to Dired), Calendar (an Emacs-based calendar and appointment- management tool), and W3 (an interface to the World Wide Web) are a part of the XEmacs Lisp library. See the related documentation in the online info browser.
• Emacs now supports floating-point numbers.
• When you send mail, mail aliases are now expanded in the buffer. In earlier versions, they were expanded after the mail-sending command was executed.
• The initial value of load-path is computed when Emacs starts up, instead of being hardcoded in when Emacs is compiled. As a result, you can now move the Emacs executable and Lisp library to a different location in the file system without having to recompile.
• Any existing subdirectories of the Emacs Lisp directory are now added to the load-path by default.
• On some machines, you can change the audible bell using the sound-alist variable. See section Changing the Bell Sound for more information.
• You can use multiple X windows to display multiple Emacs frames.
• You can use the X selection mechanism to copy material from other applications and into other applications. You can also use all Emacs region commands on a region selected with the mouse. See section Selecting Text with the Mouse for more information.
• By default, the variable zmacs-regions is set to highlight the region between point and the mark. This unifies X selection and Emacs selection behavior.
• XEmacs has a menu bar for mouse-controlled operations in addition to keystrokes. See section XEmacs Pull-down Menus.
• You can look in the file `/usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.11/etc/Emacs.ad' for a list of Emacs X resources. You can set these resources in your X environment to set your preferences for color, fonts, location, and the size of XEmacs frames. Refer to your X documentation for more information about resources.

  New Commands and Variables

  There are many new functions in XEmacs, and many existing functions whose semantics have been expanded. Most of these are only of interest to the Emacs-Lisp programmer; see the NEWS file C-h n for a complete list. What follows is a partial list of the new interactive commands:

• byte-compile-and-load-file and byte-compile-buffer byte-compile the contents of a file or buffer. The new conx function lets you generate random sentences for your amusement.
• compile-defun compiles and evaluates the current top-level form.
• find-this-file and find-this-file-other-window can be used interactively with a prefix argument to switch to the filename at point in the buffer. find-this-file-other-window displays the file in another window.
• Several new functions have been added that allow you to customize the color and font attributes of a region of text: invert-face, make-face-bold, make-face-bold-italic, make-face-italic, make-face-unbold, make-face-unitalic, set-face-background, set-face-background-pixmap, set-face-font, set-face-foreground, and set-face-underline-p.
• load-default-sounds and load-sound-file allow you to customize the audible bell sound. load-default-sounds loads and installs sound files. load-sound-file reads in audio files and adds them to the sound alist. play-sound plays the specified sound type.
• locate-library finds the file that the function load-library loads, and it displays the file's full pathname.
• make-directory creates a directory, while remove-directory removes a directory.
• mark-beginning-of-buffer and mark-end-of-buffer push the mark to the beginning or end of a buffer, respectively. Several functions have been added that allow you to perform various editing, region, and window operations using the mouse: mouse-del-char, mouse-delete-window, mouse-keep-one-window, mouse-kill-line, mouse-line-length, mouse-scroll, mouse-select, mouse-select-and-split, mouse-set-mark, mouse-set-point, mouse-track, mouse-track-adjust, mouse-track-and-copy-to-cutbuffer, mouse-track-delete-and-insert, mouse-track-insert, and mouse-window-to-region.
• compare-windows takes an argument ignore-whitespace. The argument means ignore changes in whitespace.

(cond ((string-match "Lucid" emacs-version)
       ;;
       ;; Code for any version of Lucid Emacs or XEmacs goes here
       ;;
       ))

(cond ((and (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version)
	    (or (> emacs-major-version 19)
	        (>= emacs-minor-version 12)))
       ;;
       ;; Code which requires XEmacs version 19.12 or newer goes here
       ;;
       ))

(cond ((>= emacs-major-version 19)
       ;;
       ;; Code for any vintage-19 emacs goes here
       ;;
       ))

(cond ((and (not (string-match "Lucid" emacs-version))
	    (= emacs-major-version 19))
       ;;
       ;; Code specific to FSF Emacs 19 (not XEmacs) goes here
       ;;
       ))

(cond ((< emacs-major-version 19)
       ;;
       ;; Code specific to emacs 18 goes here
       ;;
       ))

• add-menu lets you add a new menu to the menubar or a submenu to a pull-down menu. add-menu-item, disable-menu-item, delete-menu-item, enable-menu-item, and relabel-menu-item allow you to customize the XEmacs pull-down menus.
• make-frame creates a new Emacs frame (X window).

• minibuffer-confirm-incomplete prompts for confirmation in contexts where completing-read allows answers that are not valid completions.
• Several variables have been added that allow you to customize the color and shape of the mouse pointer: x-pointer-background-color, x-pointer-foreground-color, x-mode-pointer-shape, x-pointer-shape, and
  x-nontext-pointer-shape.
• zmacs-regions determines whether LISPM-style active regions should be used.

Changes in Key Bindings

XEmacs has the following new default function keybindings:

HELP

Same as C-h.

UNDO

Same as M-x undo.

CUT

Same as the Cut menu item; that is, it copies the selected text to the X Clipboard selection.

COPY

Same as the Copy menu item.

PASTE

Same as the Paste menu item.

PGUP

Same as M-v.

PGDN

Same as C-v.

HOME

Same as M-<.

END

Same as M->.

LEFT-ARROW

Same as the function backward-char.

RIGHT-ARROW

Same as the function forward-char.

UP-ARROW

Same as the function previous-line.

DOWN-ARROW

Same as the function next-line.