view info/NEWS @ 2331:798a4d06ba7d

[project @ 1996-07-19 01:52:57 by jwe] Initial revision
author jwe
date Fri, 19 Jul 1996 01:57:38 +0000
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This release of Info is version 2.8.  Please read the file README.

Changes since 2.5 beta:

Note that versions 2.6 and 2.7 Beta were only released to a select group.

* "info-" removed from the front of M-x commands.

* Automatic footnote display.  When you enter a node which contains
  footnotes, and the variable "automatic-footnotes" is "On", Info pops
  up a window containing the footnotes.  Likewise, when you leave that
  node, the window containing the footnotes goes away.

* Cleaner built in documentation, and documentation functions.

  Use:
    o `M-x describe-variable' to read a variable's documenation
    o `M-x describe-key' to find out what a particular keystroke does.
    o `M-x describe-function' to read a function's documentation.
    o `M-x where-is' to find out what keys invoke a particular function.

* Info can "tile" the displayed windows (via "M-x tile-windows").  If
  the variable "automatic-tiling" is "On", then splitting a window or
  deleting a window causes the remaining windows to be retiled.

* You can save every keystroke you type in a "dribble file" by using the
  `--dribble FILENAME' option.  You can initially read keystrokes from an
  alternate input stream with `--restore FILENAME', or by redirecting
  input on the command line `info < old-dribble'.

* New behaviour of menu items.  If the label is the same as the
  target node name, and the node couldn't be found in the current file,
  treat the label as a file name.  For example, a menu entry in "DIR"
  might contain:

    * Emacs::		Cool text-editor.

  Info would not find the node "(dir)Emacs", so just plain "(emacs)"
  would be tried.

* New variable "ISO-Latin" allows you to use European machines with
  8-bit character sets.

* Cleanups in echo area reading, and redisplay.  Cleanups in handling the
  window which shows possible completions.

* Info can now read files that have been compressed.  An array in filesys.c
  maps extensions to programs that can decompress stdin, and write the results
  to stdout.  Currently, ".Z"/uncompress, ".z"/gunzip, and ".Y"/unyabba are
  supported.  The modeline for a compressed file shows "zz" in it.

* There is a new variable "gc-compressed-files" which, if non-zero, says
  it is okay to reclaim the file buffer space allocated to a file which
  was compressed, if, and only if, that file's contents do not appear in
  any history node.

* New file `nodemenu.c' implements a few functions for manipulating
  previously visited nodes.  `C-x C-b' (list-visited-nodes) produces a
  menu of the nodes that could be reached by info-history-node in some
  window.  `C-x b' (select-visited-node) is similar, but reads one of
  the node names with completion.

* Keystroke `M-r' (move_to_screen_line) allows the user to place the cursor at
  the start of a specific screen line.  Without a numeric argument, place the
  cursor on the center line; with an arg, place the cursor on that line.

* Interruptible display implemented.  Basic display speedups and hacks.
* The message "*** Tags Out of Date ***" now means what it says.
* Index searching with `,' (info-index-next) has been improved.
* When scrolling with C-v, C-M-v, or M-v, only "Page Only" scrolling
  will happen.

* Continous scrolling (along with `]' (info-global-next) and `['
  (info-global-prev) works better.  `]' and `[' accept numeric
  arguments, moving that many nodes in that case.

* `C-x w' (info-toggle-wrap) controls how lines wider than the width
  of the screen are displayed.  If a line is too long, a `$' is
  displayed in the rightmost column of the window.

* There are some new variables for controlling the behaviour of Info
  interactively.  The current list of variables is as follows:

  Variable Name      Default Value  Description
  -------------      -------------  -----------
  `automatic-footnotes' On	    When "On", footnotes appear and
				    disappear automatically.

  `automatic-tiling'    Off	    When "On", creating of deleting a
				    window resizes other windows.

  `visible-bell'        Off	    If non-zero, try to use a visible bell.

  `errors-ring-bell'    On	    If non-zero, errors cause a ring.

  `show-index-match'    On	    If non-zero, the portion of the string
				    matched is highlighted by changing its
				    case.

  `scroll-behaviour'    Continuous  One of "Continuous", "Next Only", or
				    "Page Only".  "Page Only" prevents you from
				    scrolling past the bottom or top of a node.
				    "Next Only" causes the Next or Prev node to
				    be selected when you scroll past the bottom
				    or top of a node.  "Continous" moves
				    linearly through the files hierchichal
				    structure.

  `scroll-step'	        0	    Controls how scrolling is done for you when
				    the cursor moves out of the current window.
				    Non-zero means it is the number of lines
				    you would like the screen to shift.  A
				    value of 0 means to center the line
				    containing the cursor in the window.

  `gc-compressed-files' Off	    If non-zero means it is okay to reclaim the
				    file buffer space allocated to a file which
				    was compressed, if, and only if, that
				    file's contents do not appear in the node
				    list of any window.

  `ISO-Latin'	        Off	    Non-zero means that you are using an ISO
				    Latin character set.  By default, standard
				    ASCII characters are assumed.
________________________________________
This release of Info is version 2.5 beta.

Changes since 2.4 beta:

* Index (i) and (,) commands fully implemented.
* "configure" script now shipped with Info.
* New function "set-variable" allows users to set various variables.
* User-settable behaviour on end or beginning of node scrolling.  This
  supercedes the SPC and DEL changes in 2.3 beta.

________________________________________
This release of Info is version 2.4 beta.

Changes since 2.3 beta:

* info-last-node now means move to the last node of this info file.
* info-history-node means move backwards through this window's node history.
* info-first-node moves to the first node in the Info file.  This node is
  not necessarily "Top"!
* SPC and DEL can select the Next or Prev node after printing an informative
  message when pressed at the end/beg of a node.

----------------------------------------
This release of Info is version 2.3 beta.

Changes since 2.2 beta:

* M-x command lines if NAMED_COMMANDS is #defined.  Variable in Makefile.
* Screen height changes made quite robust.
* Interactive function "set-screen-height" implements user height changes.
* Scrolling on some terminals is faster now.
* C-l with numeric arguement is fixed.

----------------------------------------
This release of Info is version 2.2 beta.

Changes since 2.0:

* C-g can now interrupt multi-file searches.
* Incremental search is fully implemented.
* Loading large tag tables is much faster now.
* makedoc.c replaces shell script, speeding incremental builds.
* Scrolling in redisplay is implemented.
* Recursive uses of the echo area made more robust.
* Garbage collection of unreferenced nodes.