* etc/ERC-NEWS: Add section for ERC 5.6.
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etc/ERC-NEWS
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etc/ERC-NEWS
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@ -11,6 +11,183 @@ This file is about changes in ERC, the powerful, modular, and
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extensible IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client distributed with
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GNU Emacs since Emacs version 22.1.
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* Changes in ERC 5.6
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** Module 'keep-place' now offers a visual indicator.
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Remember your place in ERC buffers a bit more easily while retaining
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the freedom to look around. Optionally sync the indicator to any
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progress made when you haven't yet caught up to the live stream. See
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options 'erc-keep-place-indicator-style' and friends and new module
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'keep-place-indicator', which for now must be added manually to
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'erc-modules'.
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** Module 'fill' now offers a style based on 'visual-line-mode'.
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This fill style mimics the "hanging indent" look of 'erc-fill-static'
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and provides some movement and editing commands to optionally tame the
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less familiar aspects of 'visual-line' behavior. An interactive
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helper called 'erc-fill-wrap-nudge' allows for dynamic "refilling" of
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buffers on the fly. Set 'erc-fill-function' to 'erc-fill-wrap' to get
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started.
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** A unified interactive entry point.
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New users are often dismayed to discover that M-x ERC doesn't connect
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to its default network, Libera.Chat, over TLS. Though perhaps a
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decade overdue, this is no longer the case. Other UX improvements in
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this area aim to make the process of connecting interactively slightly
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more streamlined and less repetitive, even for veteran users.
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** New buffer-display option 'erc-interactive-display'.
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A point of friction for new users and one only just introduced with
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ERC 5.5 has been the lack of visual feedback when first connecting via
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M-x erc. As explained below in the news for 5.5, the discovery of a
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security issue led to new ERC buffers being "buried" on creation. On
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further reflection, this was judged to have been an overcorrection in
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the case of interactive invocations, hence the new option
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'erc-interactive-display', which is set to 'buffer' (i.e., "take me
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there") by default. Accompanying this addition are "display"-suffixed
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aliases for related options 'erc-join-buffer' and 'erc-auto-query',
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which users have reported as being difficult to discover and remember.
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** Setting a module's mode variable via Customize earns a warning.
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Trying and failing to activate a module via its minor mode's Custom
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widget has been an age-old annoyance for new users. Previously
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ineffective, this method now actually works, but it also admonishes
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users to edit the 'erc-modules' widget instead.
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** The option 'erc-timestamp-use-align-to' is more versatile.
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While this option has always offered to right-align stamps via the
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'display' text property, it's now more effective at doing so when set
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to a number indicating an offset from the right edge. And when set to
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the symbol 'margin', it displays stamps in the right margin, although,
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at the moment, this is mostly intended for use by other modules, such
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as 'fill-wrap', described above. For both these variants, users of
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the 'log' module may want to customize 'erc-log-filter-function' to
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'erc-stamp-prefix-log-filter' to avoid ragged right-hand stamps
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appearing in their saved logs.
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** Smarter reconnect handling for users on the move.
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ERC now offers a new, experimental reconnect strategy in the function
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'erc-server-delayed-check-reconnect', which tests for underlying
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connectivity before attempting to reconnect in earnest. See options
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'erc-server-reconnect-function' and 'erc-nickname-in-use-functions' to
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get started.
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** Easily constrain all ERC-related business to a dedicated frame.
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The option 'erc-reuse-frames' can now be set to 'displayed', which
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tells ERC to show new buffers in frames already occupied by buffers
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from the same connection. This customization depends on the option
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'erc-buffer-display' (formerly 'erc-join-buffer') being set to
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'frame'. If you find the name 'displayed' unhelpful, please suggest
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an alternative by writing to the mailing list.
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** Some keybindings are now set by modules rather than their libraries.
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To put it another way, simply loading a built-in module's library no
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longer modifies 'erc-mode-map'. Instead, modifications occur during
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module setup. This should not impact most user configs since ERC
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doesn't bother with keys already taken and only removes bindings it's
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previously created. Note that while all affected bindings still
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reside in 'erc-mode-map', future built-in modules will use their own
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minor-mode maps, and new third-party modules should do the same.
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** The option 'erc-timestamp-format-right' has been deprecated.
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Having to account for this option prevented other ERC modules from
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easily determining what right-hand stamps would look like before
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insertion, which is knowledge needed for certain UI decisions. The
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way ERC has chosen to address this is imperfect and boils down to
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asking users who've customized this option to switch to
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'erc-timestamp-format' instead. If you're affected by this and feel
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that some other solution, like automatic migration, is justified,
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please make that known on the bug list.
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** The 'nicknames' entry in 'erc-button-alist' is officially exceptional.
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It's no secret that the 'buttons' module treats potential nicknames
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specially. To simplify ERC's move to next-gen "rich UI" extensions,
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this special treatment is being canonized. From now on, all values
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other than the symbol 'erc-button-buttonize-nicks' appearing in the
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"FORM" field (third element) of this entry are considered deprecated
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and will incur a warning.
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** Miscellaneous UX changes.
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Some minor quality-of-life niceties have finally made their way to
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ERC. For example, the function 'erc-echo-timestamp' is now
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interactive and can be invoked on any message to view its timestamp in
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the echo area. Also, the 'irccontrols' module now supports additional
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colors and special handling for "spoilers" (hidden text). And issuing
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an "/MOTD" now dispatches a purpose-built command handler.
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** Changes in the library API.
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*** Some top-level dependencies have been removed.
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The library 'erc-goodies' is no longer loaded by ERC's main library.
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This was done to further cement the move toward a unidirectional
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dependency flow begun in 5.5. Additionally, a few barely used and
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newly introduced dependencies are now lazily loaded, which may upset
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some third-party code. The first of these is 'pp' because its
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'pp-to-string' is autoloaded in all supported ERC versions. Also gone
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are 'thingatpt', 'time-date', and 'iso8601'. All were used ultra
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sparingly, and the latter two have only been around for one minor
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release cycle, so their removal hopefully won't cause much churn.
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*** Some ERC-applied text properties have changed.
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Chiefly, 'rear-sticky' has been replaced by 'erc-command', which
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records the IRC command (or numeric) associated with a message. Less
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impactfully, the value of the 'field' property for ERC's prompt has
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changed from 't' to the more useful 'erc-prompt', although the
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property of the same name has been retained.
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*** ERC now manages timestamp-related properties a bit differently.
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For starters, the 'cursor-sensor-functions' property no longer
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contains unique closures and thus no longer proves effective for
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traversing messages. To compensate, a new property, 'erc-timestamp',
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now spans message bodies but not the newlines delimiting them.
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Somewhat relatedly, the function 'erc-insert-aligned' has been
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deprecated and removed from the primary client code path.
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*** The role of a module's Custom group is now more clearly defined.
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Associating built-in modules with Custom groups and provided library
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features has improved. More specifically, a module's group now enjoys
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the singular purpose of determining where the module's minor mode
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variable lives in the Customize interface. And although ERC is now
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slightly more adept at linking these entities, third-parties are still
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encouraged to keep a module's name aligned with its group's as well as
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the provided feature of its containing library, if only for the usual
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reasons of namespace hygiene and discoverability.
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*** ERC now supports arbitrary CHANTYPES.
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Specifically, channels can be prefixed with any predesignated
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character, mainly to afford more flexibility to specialty services,
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like bridges to other protocols.
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*** 'erc-cmd-HELP' recognizes subcommands.
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Some IRC "slash" commands are hierarchical and require users to
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specify a subcommand to actually carry out anything of consequence.
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Built-in modules can now provide more detailed help for a particular
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subcommand by telling ERC to defer to a specialized handler.
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*** Longtime quasi modules have been made proper.
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The 'fill' module is now defined by 'define-erc-module'. The same
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goes for ERC's imenu integration, which has 'imenu' now appearing in
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the default value of 'erc-modules'.
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*** ERC's prompt survives the insertion of user input and messages.
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Previously, ERC's prompt and its input marker disappeared while
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running hooks during message insertion, and the position of its
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"insert marker" (ERC's per-buffer process mark) was inconsistent
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during these spells. To make insertion handling more predictable in
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preparation for incorporating various protocol extensions, the prompt
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and its bounding markers have become perennial fixtures. In rare
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cases, these changes may mean third-party code needs tweaking, for
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example, requiring the use of 'insert-before-markers' instead of
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'insert'. As always, users feeling unduly inconvenienced by these
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changes are encouraged to voice their concerns on the bug list.
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*** Miscellaneous changes
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For autoloading purposes, 'Info-goto-node' has been supplanted by
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plain old 'info' in 'erc-button-alist', and two helper macros from GNU
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ELPA's Compat library are now available to third-party modules as
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'erc-compat-call' and 'erc-compat-function'.
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* Changes in ERC 5.5
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