[comp.emacs] emacs-19 -- What's in it?

mferrare@adelphi.ua.oz.au (Mark Ferraretto) (09/19/90)

A recent query as to why X menus did not work on my version of emacs brought about comments
about emacs version 19.   Is this the latest version of emacs out?  Or is it still being 
written?  What are the differences between it and emacs-18?

-- 
       _             Name  : Mark Ferraretto
      \  \           Place : Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics
 ||     \  \                 University of Adelaide
==========>==>==--   Aarnet: mferrare@physics.adelaide.edu.au
 ||      /  /        Phone : +61 8 228 5428
       /_ /          Phax  : +61 8 224 0464

wargaski@ils.nwu.edu (Robert E. Wargaski Jr.) (09/20/90)

Following is extracted from the most recent issue of Gnu's Bulletin
(June 1990):

GNU Project Status Report
*************************

   * GNU Emacs

     GNU Emacs 18 is now stable.  Only a few important bugs have
     been encountered since Version 18.55.

     Berkeley is distributing GNU Emacs with the 4.3 distribution,
     and numerous companies also distribute it.

     Version 18 maintenance continues and a new version, 18.56, is
     expected soon.  It has no new features, however.  Version 19
     approaches release with a host of new features: before and
     after change hooks; X selection processing (including
     CLIPBOARD selections); scrollbars; support for European
     character sets; floating point numbers; per-buffer mouse
     commands; interfacing with the X resource manager;
     mouse-tracking; Lisp-level binding of function keys; and
     multiple X windows (`screens' to Emacs).

     Thanks go to Alan Carroll and the people who worked on Epoch
     for generating initial feedback to a multi-windowed Emacs.
     Emacs 19 supports two styles of multiple windows, one with a
     separate screen for the minibuffer, and another with a
     minibuffer attached to each screen.

     More features of Version 19 are buffer allocation, which uses
     a new mechanism capable of returning storage to the system
     when a buffer is killed, and a new input system---all input
     now arrives in the form of Lisp objects.

     Other features being considered for Version 19 include:

        - Associating property lists with regions of text in a
          buffer.
        - Multiple font, color, and pixmaps defined by those
          properties.
        - Different visibility conditions for the regions, and for
          the various windows showing one buffer.
        - Incremental syntax analysis for various programming
          languages.
        - Hooks to be run if point or mouse moves outside a certain
          range.
        - Source-level debugging for Emacs Lisp.
        - Incrementally saving undo history in a file, so that
          recover-file also reinstalls buffer's undo history.
        - Static menu bars, and better pop-up menus.
        - A more sophisticated emacsclient/server model, which
          would provide network transparent Emacs widget
          functionality.


Regards,

Rob Wargaski


Robert E. Wargaski Jr.			 This is stupid. -- Vila
wargaski@[acns,eecs,ils].nwu.edu	 When did that ever stop us. -- Avon
ACNS DSS, Northwestern University			Moooo!