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Update Antinews in the user manual for Emacs 29

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* doc/emacs/anti.texi (Antinews): Rewrite for Emacs 29.
* doc/emacs/emacs.texi (Top): Adjust the top-level menu.
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Eli Zaretskii 2023-01-01 17:38:23 +02:00
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@ -4,134 +4,154 @@
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node Antinews
@appendix Emacs 27 Antinews
@appendix Emacs 28 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 27.2. We hope you will enjoy the
about downgrading to Emacs version 28.2. We hope you will enjoy the
greater simplicity that results from the absence of many @w{Emacs
@value{EMACSVER}} features.
@itemize @bullet
@item
Emacs can no longer be built with support of native compilation of
Lisp programs. This means Emacs builds much faster, and the problems
that came with native compilation: the need to have GCC and Binutils
installed, the complications of managing your @file{eln-cache}
directories---all of that is now future history. The simplicity and
elegance of the Emacs byte-compiled code is now restored in all of its
pristine beauty.
Like its newer releases, Emacs 28 can still be built with support of
native compilation of Lisp programs. However, in preparation for
removal of this feature in some previous version, we've deleted the
capability of ahead-of-time native compilation of all the Lisp files
that come with Emacs. This makes the Emacs build process much faster.
@item
Emacs no longer builds by default with Cairo, even if it's present.
The warnings about not using HarfBuzz are also gone, in preparation
for complete removal of HarfBuzz support in previous Emacs versions.
Fancy text shaping and display is becoming less important as you move
back in time. The @code{ftx} font backend is again part of Emacs, for
the same reasons.
Emacs can no longer be built with the tree-sitter library, so you no
longer will need to look for and install the grammar libraries for
the languages in which you want to program. Similarly, all the modes
that are based on the tree-sitter library were deleted, leaving you
with just one major mode for every supported programming language: no
more need to decide whether to turn the tree-sitter supported modes on
and try using their parser-based fontification, indentation, and other
features. For some languages and file types, this means no major mode
at all, leaving you with the venerable Fundamental mode as the
natural, high-performance choice. For example, Go, Rust, and CMake
files no longer have any major modes for editing their files ---
another milestone towards a simpler, leaner Emacs.
@item
Emacs once again supports versions 5.3 and older OpenBSD systems,
which will be needed as you move back in time.
Built-in support for accessing SQLite databases was removed. You can
now again edit SQLite files as simple binary files, which Emacs is
quite capable to support, as it always did.
@item
We've dropped support for Secure Computing filter on GNU/Linux. The
past world is much more secure than the present, so the complexities
related with this stuff, which can only be explained by severe
paranoia, are no longer justified.
As a gesture to users of the Haiku operating system, we've dropped the
code which allowed Emacs to be built on that OS@. We expect Haiku
users to enjoy the much simpler editors they have for editing their
files.
@item
Emacs reverted back to supporting Unicode 13.x, since the following
versions of the standards are not yet published where you are going.
The @samp{emoji} script and the support for displaying Emoji sequences
were removed for the same reasons: no one will produce them in the
past.
Support for XInput2 input events on X is gone. We think the
traditional X input events are more than enough, certainly so as you
move back in time, where XInput2 will eventually be removed from X as
well, once the maintainers of the X Windows system realize the utter
futility of supporting fancy input mechanisms.
@item
Mode-specific commands and the @kbd{M-S-x} command that invokes them
were removed. As you move back in time, the command set in Emacs
becomes smaller, so any such filtering of applicable commands just
gets in the way.
The ``pure GTK'' (a.k.a.@: @acronym{PGTK}) configuration of Emacs is
no longer supported. This is in anticipation of the complete removal
of the GTK toolkit support from Emacs, and in accordance with our
expectation that GTK will cease to exist as you move back in time. We
plan on removing support for all the other toolkits as well, leaving
only the pure X build with our own widgets as the single supported GUI
configuration on X.
@item
We have removed the system for displaying documentation of groups of
related functions, the @kbd{shortdoc-display-group} command to go with
it, and the corresponding ``See also'' button in the @file{*Help*}
buffer. That should make searching for certain functions simpler:
just use the venerable @samp{apropos} commands.
The @option{--init-directory} command-line option was removed, as
initializing Emacs with init files of another user is a preposterous
idea anyway.
@item
The @code{context-menu-mode} was removed, and with it the context
menus popped by pressing the right mouse button. This is one small
step towards freeing Emacs (and eventually, the whole world of
computing) from the tyranny of the GUI pointing devices in general,
and moving back to the simplicity of text-mode user interfaces.
Down with mice and other rodents!
In line with simplifying and eventually removing the
native-compilation option, we've deleted the
@code{inhibit-automatic-native-compilation} variable and its support
code. This greatly simplifies how native compilation works and makes
your configure-time decision regarding native compilation in Emacs
clear-cut: either Emacs always compiles Lisp to native code before
using it, or it never does so; no more half measures and special
exceptions. For similar reasons, @code{native-compile-prune-cache}
and @code{startup-redirect-eln-cache} features are no longer part of
Emacs.
@item
The commands @kbd{C-x 4 4} and @kbd{C-x 5 5} for displaying the
results in a new window/frame re gone. We are quite certain that
creating a new window/frame before running a command is much simpler,
and doesn't require a complication of a new prefix.
We've deleted the special code and features which allowed Emacs to
present decent performance and responsiveness when editing files with
very long lines. Such files become more and more rare as time goes
back, and so having all this tricky code in Emacs for their benefit
was deemed an unnecessary complication.
@item
The behavior of active minibuffers when switching frames is now the
perfect mess it should be: sometimes the minibuffer moves to the new
selected frame, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes you get an error.
This makes Emacs usage much more fun, as you get to guess the result,
instead of having it boringly consistent.
Emacs dropped support for Eglot and the LSP servers. We decided that
the built-in ways of analyzing source code are more than enough as you
move back in time.
@item
Compact mode-line display mode has been removed. The items displayed
on the mode line are now always in the same place, and if there's not
enough space for them, they are not displayed at all, instead of being
confusingly displayed in a different position. You no longer need to
think twice where to find a particular mode-line element on display.
Commands to scale and rotate images are once again bound to single
keys like @kbd{+}, @kbd{-}, and @kbd{r}, which makes them much easier
to type. As for the risk of typing these by mistake, we don't believe
Emacs users make typing mistakes, especially as they move back in
time and become younger and younger.
@item
Many commands and options related to tab bars were removed, including
(but not limited to) frame-specific appearance of tab bars, the
@code{tab-bar-format} option, the @kbd{C-x t n}, @kbd{C-x t N},
@kbd{C-x t M}, and @kbd{C-x t G} commands, and many mouse gestures on
the tab bar. We are going to delete the tab bar support from Emacs in
one of the past versions, and this is a step in that direction.
To simplify typing popular commands, we've rebound the @w{@kbd{C-x 8 . .}}
back to @w{@kbd{C-x 8 .}} and @w{@kbd{C-x 8 = =}} back to @w{@kbd{C-x 8 =}}.
There's no need for fancier, longer key sequences, as moving back in
time means we will have fewer and fewer commands to bind to them in
the first place.
@item
The ``transient'' input methods have been removed; use @kbd{C-\} to
turn input methods on and off instead. This is in preparation for
complete removal of input methods from Emacs in version 19, and
consistent with the fact that the number of input methods we support
becomes smaller as you move back in time.
If you inadvertently kill the @file{*scratch*} buffer, Emacs will
recreate it in Fundamental mode, not in Lisp Interaction mode. You
get to turn on the mode you like yourself. Our long-term plans for
past Emacs releases is to remove the recreation of @file{*scratch*}
altogether, and this is the first step in that direction.
@item
We disabled @code{show-paren-mode} by default, since we think the
venerable @code{blink-matching-paren} feature is more than enough, and
better fits the simplicity of past Emacs versions. It will definitely
be better when colors are removed from Emacs in the distant past.
For the same reason, sub-groups in interactive regexp searches are no
longer highlighted in distinct colors.
Support for @code{rlogin} and @code{rsh} protocols are back, since we
expect them to become more and more important and popular as you move
back in time.
@item
On our permanent quest for simplifying Emacs, we've removed the Ispell
command @code{ispell-comment-or-string-at-point}; the old-time friend
@code{ispell-comments-and-strings} should suffice.
In preparation for eventual removal of Unicode support from Emacs,
we've downgraded our Unicode support to version 14.0.
@item
Many Gnus commands and options were deemed to unnecessarily complicate
the use of Gnus (which is too complex to begin with), and thus were
removed. This includes @code{gnus-topic-display-predicate},
@code{gnus-process-mark-toggle}, @code{gnus-registry-register-all},
@code{gnus-paging-select-next}, and many others. The @code{nnselect}
backend was deleted for the same reason.
You can no longer change the size of the font globally. Since Emacs
will at some past date remove all support for variable-size fonts,
having such commands is a luxury we are better without.
@item
The @file{project.el} package have been redesigned to remove many
unnecessary features, so that just the bare essentials remain. We
plan on removing this package from Emacs in a previous version, but
decided to begin with removing some extra features first.
On our permanent quest for simplifying Emacs, we've removed the
commands @code{duplicate-line} and @code{duplicate-dwim}; the old-time
friends @kbd{M-w} and @kbd{C-y} (typed one or more times) should
suffice. The command @code{rename-visited-file} is gone for the same
reason.
@item
We've deleted many commands related to Emoji, which were bound in the
@kbd{C-x 8 e} prefix keymap. We decided that the ability to type
Emoji sequences using @kbd{C-x 8 @key{RET}} is enough, and actually
serves our users better by requiring them to know the codepoints of
the sequences they want to type.
@item
We dropped support for many scripts and input methods, especially old
scripts that no one uses anyway. For similar reasons, Greek and
Ukrainian translations of the Emacs tutorial are not available
anymore.
@item
@file{package.el} can no longer fetch source code of packages from
their VCS repositories. We think command-line tools like Git should
be enough to allow you to clone their repositories. So we deleted
the @code{package-vc-install} command and other similar commands.
@item
To keep up with decreasing computer memory capacity and disk space, many
other functions and files have been eliminated in Emacs 27.2.
other functions and files have been eliminated in Emacs 28.2.
@end itemize

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@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ 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 27.
* Antinews:: Information about Emacs version 28.
* Mac OS / GNUstep:: Using Emacs under macOS and GNUstep.
* Haiku:: Using Emacs on Haiku.
* Microsoft Windows:: Using Emacs on Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS.