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Update Antinews in the Emacs manual

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* doc/emacs/anti.texi (Antinews): Rewrite for Emacs 27.
* doc/emacs/emacs.texi (Top): Update the "Antiniews" item of the
top-level menu.
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Eli Zaretskii 2020-01-10 12:28:06 +02:00
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202
doc/emacs/anti.texi
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@ -4,103 +4,112 @@
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node Antinews
@appendix Emacs 25 Antinews
@appendix Emacs 26 Antinews
@c Update the emacs.texi Antinews menu entry with the above version number.
For those users who live backwards in time, here is information
about downgrading to Emacs version 25.3. We hope you will enjoy the
about downgrading to Emacs version 26.3. We hope you will enjoy the
greater simplicity that results from the absence of many @w{Emacs
@value{EMACSVER}} features.
@itemize @bullet
@item
Emacs no longer defaults to requiring the GnuTLS library when you
build it. Those who want the TLS functionality built-in will have to
explicitly request it at build time---or forever hold their peace. We
decided that having the TLS functionality doesn't justify annoying
users or package builders with error messages about libgnutls absence.
We also decided that if you do build with GnuTLS, we will allow
versions of the library older than 2.12.2, as that version will become
less and less available/popular as you move farther back in time.
Emacs no longer uses @acronym{GMP}, the GNU Multiple Precision
library, and doesn't support Lisp integers greater than
@code{most-positive-fixnum} or smaller than
@code{most-negative-fixnum}. We now have only one kind of a Lisp
integer. This simplifies many Lisp programs that use integers, and
makes integer calculations always fast. If you want larger values,
use Lisp floats, as Emacs has done since day one.
@item
For similar reasons, we've reverted back to building our own version
of @command{movemail} that retrieves POP3 mail as clear text via
insecure channels. As you move back in time, the availability of
secure alternatives to POP3 will diminish, and we are only keen to
support that. We've also removed the @option{--with-mailutils}
configure-time option, as it no longer makes sense for the observable
past.
Emacs no longer supports HarfBuzz as the engine for shaping complex
text. As you move back in time, we will gradually shed off all traces
of support for complex text shaping, and this is one step in that
direction.
@item
We have removed support for @command{systemd} and similar services: we
no longer provide a user init file for enabling Emacs support via
those services, and we removed from the Emacs server the
socket-launching support important for Emacs client operation under
these services. Again, these services will lose popularity as you
move back in time, so the code supporting them will be just dead code,
bloating Emacs unnecessarily.
We have removed support for building with the Jansson library, and
consequently the native support for JSON parsing is gone. The
importance of JSON decreases as we go back in time, so for now using
the Lisp code for handling it should be good enough; in one of the
past Emacs versions, we intend to remove even that, as useless bloat.
The library for supporting JSONRPC applications was removed for the
same reason.
@item
Reproducible builds of Emacs are no longer supported, as past
development will make that unnecessary.
The ``portable dumper'' feature is gone. We are once again using the
field-proven ``unexec'' way of dumping Emacs. With that, the hope for
being able to re-dump your customized Emacs session is also gone: why
would anyone want to record their random customization experiments on
disk, and restore them the next time they start Emacs? And true
Emacsers don't restart their Emacs sessions anyway.
@item
The @option{--fg-daemon} is gone, leaving only @option{--daemon}. No
need to procrastinate on the dilemma whether you do or do not want the
new shiny ``headless Emacs'' thingy. Hail, simplicity!
We dropped the support for @acronym{XDG}-style configuration
directories and the @env{XDG_CONFIG_HOME} environment variable.
There's once again only one place where Emacs looks for its init
files: the @file{~/.emacs.d} directory, with the @file{~/.emacs} file
as fallback. We think this will go a long way towards preventing
confusion among users who for some reason have @env{XDG_CONFIG_HOME}
set, thus risking to have their init files randomly spread between two
places. In one of the past Emacs versions, we intend to further
simplify this, removing the @file{~/.emacs.d} place and leaving only
@file{~/.emacs}; stay tuned.
For similar reasons, we've removed the ``early init'' file. You can
now again use all the tricks you want to initialize variables like
@code{package-user-dir} and @code{package-load-list} just in time for
the packages to load.
@command{emacsclient} no longer supports @acronym{XDG}-style directory
trees, either.
@item
As text terminals supporting true color will lose ground as you move
back in time, we've removed support for 24-bit colors on text
terminals. If you want colors on a text terminal, you should be fine
with just 8 of them. (Truth being told, we think text terminals
should be monochrome, but you will have to keep downgrading to older
Emacs versions to have that feature back.)
TLS connections are back to their lenient security settings. We
decide that too tight security settings are an annoyance for users,
and make little sense considering the world-wide tendency to have less
and less network security problems as we move back in time (those
issues will be completely gone when networks disappear in some distant
past).
@item
Emacs 25.3 no longer supports magic signatures of the form
@samp{#!/usr/bin/env @var{interpreter}} in scripts. Moving back in
time means you are getting closer to the ideal of the original Unix
design where all the interpreters lived in a single directory
@file{/bin}, so this fancy feature is simply becoming unnecessary
ballast.
The @code{server-after-make-frame-hook} hook was deleted, in
preparation for removing the entire daemon business in some past Emacs
version. You will be glad to learn that setting up the GUI
customizations of your sessions is now once again as easy as it ever
was, with just the @code{after-make-frame-functions} to use.
@item
The double-buffering feature of Emacs display on X has been removed.
We decided that its complexity and a few random surprising
side-effects aren't justified by the gains, even though those gains
were hailed in some quarters. Yes, Emacs 25.3 will flicker in some
use cases, but we are sure Emacs users will be able to suck it, as
they have been doing for years. Since this feature is gone, we've
also removed the @code{inhibit-double-buffering} frame parameter,
which is now unnecessary.
The @code{flex} completion style was removed. We feel that it
unnecessarily complicates the Emacs user experience, and therefore
will continue to remove other tricky completion styles, until in some
past Emacs version we get to a single original style Emacs pioneered
decades ago. Long live simplicity; down with complications!
@item
Non-breaking hyphens and ASCII characters displayed instead of
unsupported quote characters are now again displayed using the
@code{escape-glyph} face. We think having a single face instead of 3
different ones will make Emacs customization a much simpler job for
users. For the same reason, we've removed the
@code{header-line-highlight} face, leaving just @code{highlight} for
any element of the Emacs display besides the mode line.
The optional display of the fill-column indicator is no longer
supported. With the display sizes becoming smaller and smaller as you
move back in time, we feel that the display itself will always show
you where to fill or wrap your text, and do this much more easily and
reliably than eny such display indicator.
@item
You can no longer disable attempts of recovery from fatal exceptions
such as C stack overflows and fatal signals. Since the recovery
included in Emacs is reliable enough, we decided there was no reason
to put your edits in danger of becoming lost when these situations
happen. The variables @code{attempt-stack-overflow-recovery} and
@code{attempt-orderly-shutdown-on-fatal-signal} are therefore removed.
We removed the features that made visiting large files easier. Thus,
Emacs will no longer suggest visiting a large file literally, nor will
offer the @code{so-long} mode to deal with overly-long lines. We
decided that this simplification is worthwhile, given the general
tendency of having very large files a rarity as we move back in time.
@item
The @code{list-timers} command was removed, as we decided timers are
not a user-level feature, and therefore users should not be allowed to
mess with them. Ask an Emacs Lisp guru near you for help if you have
a runaway timer in your session. (Of course, as you move back in
time, such runaway timers will become less and less frequent, and
actually timers might start shutting down automatically, as they
cannot cope with time reversal.)
We have removed the feature that displayed echo-area messages without
hiding content of the active minibuffer. This should prevent user
confusion from having two unrelated pieces of text staring at them,
with no clear separation between them. Users with good memories (and
Emacs users are all expected to be of that kind) will have no trouble
keeping the minibuffer text in their minds, and typing the responses
without actually seeing the prompts.
@item
Horizontal scrolling using the mouse or touchpad has been removed. In
@ -110,14 +119,20 @@ horizontal scrolling is the first step towards its complete removal in
prior Emacs versions.
@item
We have found the @option{--tramp} option of @command{emacsclient} too
risky and too complicated, so we removed it to simplify the client
code and its usage.
The @code{main-thread} variable and @code{list-threads} were removed,
and @code{thread-join} no longer returns the result of the finished
thread. We intend to remove the support for Lisp threads in some past
Emacs version, so we continue removing the associated complexities and
features as we go back in time.
@item
The @code{display-raw-bytes-as-hex} variable is gone, so raw bytes can
only be displayed as octal escapes. Emacs users should be able to
convert from octal to any other base in their sleep!
Tab bar and window tab-lines were removed. This should make the Emacs
display simpler and less cluttered, and help those users who disable
menu bar and tool bar in their GUI sessions. The fashion to provide
tabs in every GUI application out there is gaining less and less
popularity as we move back in time, and will completely disappear at
some past point; removing the tabs from Emacs is the step in that
direction.
@item
Displaying line numbers for a buffer is only possibly using add-on
@ -129,42 +144,15 @@ Consequently, @code{display-line-numbers-mode} was removed.
@item
On our permanent quest for simplifying Emacs, we've removed the
support for passing command-line arguments and options to Emacs via
the @option{--alternate-editor} option of @command{emacsclient} and
@env{ALTERNATE_EDITOR} environment variable. There's only one True
Emacs---the one that comes up when invoked as @kbd{emacs}, no need for
all those fancy options!
@item
The complication known as ``single-line horizontal scrolling'' is no
longer with you in Emacs 25.3. This feature was a bow to ``other
editors''; instead, let those other editors bow to Emacs by hscrolling
the entire window at all times. Repeat after me: ``The Emacs way is
the Only Way!''
@item
The fancy case conversions of non-ASCII characters used in several
locales, like Turkish and Greek, are removed, leaving the relations
between upper and lower letter-case simple again, as they were in
7-bit ASCII. Likewise with ligatures that turn into multiple
characters when their letter-case changes---gone.
@item
Enchant is no longer supported by @code{ispell-buffer} and similar
spell-checking commands. As Enchant will gradually disappear while
you move back in time, its support will become unnecessary anyway.
@item
Tramp lost its support for Google Drive repositories. Cloud storage
is on its way to extinction as you move back in time, thus making this
feature redundant.
support for changing the font size by turning the mouse wheel.
@item
Several commands, deemed to be unnecessary complications, have been
removed. Examples include @code{replace-buffer-contents} and
@code{apropos-local-variable}.
removed. Examples include @code{make-empty-file},
@code{font-lock-refontify}, @code{xref-find-definitions-at-mouse},
@code{make-frame-on-monitor}, and @code{diff-buffers}.
@item
To keep up with decreasing computer memory capacity and disk space, many
other functions and files have been eliminated in Emacs 25.3.
other functions and files have been eliminated in Emacs 26.3.
@end itemize

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@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ Appendices
* GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation.
* Emacs Invocation:: Hairy startup options.
* X Resources:: X resources for customizing Emacs.
* Antinews:: Information about Emacs version 25.
* Antinews:: Information about Emacs version 26.
* Mac OS / GNUstep:: Using Emacs under macOS and GNUstep.
* Microsoft Windows:: Using Emacs on Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS.
* Manifesto:: What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix!