Add article on Emacs 29
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@ -801,6 +801,263 @@ me in the comments, through social media such as Twitter, or by email.
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Happy programming!
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* Emacs :@emacs:
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** Emacs 29 is nigh! What can we expect? :dev:emacs:
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:PROPERTIES:
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:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: emacs-29-what-can-we-expect
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:EXPORT_DATE: 2022-11-29
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:export_hugo_menu: :menu "main"
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:END:
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It [[https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2022-11/msg01774.html][was announced a couple of hours ago]], Emacs 29’s branch is now cut
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from the master branch! This means the ~emacs-29~ branch will from now
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no longer receive any new feature, but only bug fixes.
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So, what’s new with this new major release? I skimmed over the ~NEWS~
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file, and here are the changes which I find interesting and even
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exciting for some.
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*** Major features
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A couple of major improvements will be most likely present, here are
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the ones that stand out the most for me.
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**** Eglot is now part of Emacs core
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During the last couple of years, LSP has given text editors incredible
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capabilities, giving them IDE-like features relatively easily. Aside
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from Elisp development, most of the code I write is now done with the
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help of an LSP server, running along Emacs and analyzing my code,
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suggesting and performing changes and actions for me.
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Several integrations of LSP exist for Emacs, such as [[https://emacs-lsp.github.io/lsp-mode/][LSP Mode]], [[https://github.com/joaotavora/eglot][Eglot]],
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and [[https://github.com/manateelazycat/lsp-bridge][lsp-bridge]]. Among the three, Eglot is now part of Emacs core! No
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longer do you need to install a package, simply register an LSP server
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and autocompletion, documentation, error detection, and other features
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will become available right away!
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I must admit I don’t really know Eglot, I personally use LSP Mode, but
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with this addition to Emacs core, I might attempt the switch.
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**** TreeSitter is also part of Emacs core
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In case you didn’t know, Emacs’ current syntax highlighting is
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currently based on a system of regexes. Although it is not the /worst/
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thing to use, it’s not the best either, and it can become quite slow
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on larger files.
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TreeSitter parses programming languages based into a concrete syntax
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tree. From there, not only can syntax highlighting can be done at high
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speed, but a much deeper analysis of the code is possible and actions
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such sa syntax manipulation can also be achieved since the syntax tree
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itself is available as an object which can be manipulated!
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In case you want some more information on TreeSitter itself, you can
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check out the [[https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/][official TreeSitter website]], or you can even check this
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talk out given by TreeSitter’s creator, Max Brunsfeld.
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#+begin_export html
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Jes3bD6P0To" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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#+end_export
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Well, this is not a native solution in Emacs! Currently, Emacs’
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TreeSitter supports the current major modes :
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- ~typescript-ts-mode~
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- ~c-ts-mode~
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- ~c++-ts-mode~
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- ~java-ts-mode~
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- ~css-ts-mode~
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- ~json-ts-mode~
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- ~csharp-ts-mode~
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TreeSitter also holds for now a special status in the new ~emacs-29~
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branch since new features can still be added to it, as its merging
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with the master branch is still recent. So we might see the list of
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major modes for Emacs get a bit longer yet, especially considering
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TreeSitter tries to make adding new languages relatively easy.
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If you can’t wait to test TreeSitter, there is already [[https://emacs-tree-sitter.github.io/][another package]]
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available for Emacs you can use right now. Just be aware this is not
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the same package as the one that got integrated into Emacs.
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**** Install packages from source with ~package.el~
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If you use [[https://github.com/radian-software/straight.el][Straight]], you might be familiar with installing packages
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directly from their Git repository. Well, good news, it is now
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possible to install packages from Git using Emacs’ built-in packaging
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system ~package.el~! It can be done with the new function
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~package-vc-install~, and packages installed that way can be updated
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with ~package-vc-update~ or ~package-vc-update-all~.
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On the topic of ~package.el~, there is also the new function
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~package-report-bug~ which allows Emacs users to report bugs to the
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developers of a package directly from Emacs! Be aware though, it only
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works for packages installed through ~package.el~. Since I’m a
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[[https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package][~use-package~]] and ~straight.el~ user, there is no package listed when I
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invoke the command.
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**** Pure GTK Emacs is here for Wayland!
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One of the major issues Emacs had on Linux was its dependency on Xorg
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when running in GUI mode. When running Xorg, it’s not really an issue,
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but Wayland has become more and more common during the last years, and
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even with the existence of XWayland, this became an annoyance.
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Well, fear not, for pure GTK Emacs is here! It can now be built
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Xorg-free and run natively in Wayland!
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Be aware though that Wayland is basically the only use-case for pure
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GTK Emacs. If you don’t use Wayland, Emacs will display a warning
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message, as it will most likely cause issues if you are running Xorg.
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In my case, I sometimes see some ghost text when the content of a
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buffer updates (I still need pure GTK though, since I alternate
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between Xorg and Wayland).
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**** Compile EmacsLisp files ahead of time
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With Emacs 28 came the ability to natively compile EmacsLisp if your
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Emacs was built with the ability to do so, using GCC’s Just In Time
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library. This results in quite the impressive boost in performance,
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which made Emacs much snappier than it was before. The only issue I
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had was Emacs would only compile its EmacsLisp files when they were
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loaded for the first time.
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This is no longer the case! If you now compile Emacs with
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~--with-native-compilation=aot~, Emacs’ native EmacsLisp files will be
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natively compiled along with Emacs itself! Be aware though, it can be
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slow on most machines, so the time you save by not compiling these
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files when launching Emacs for the first time is basically transferred
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to when compiling Emacs itself. Is it worth your time? In my case, I
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would say yes, because when I compile Emacs, I’m generally not in a
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hurry. But in your case? Well, test it out and see for yourself.
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**** Native access to SQLite databases
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Emacs can now be built with native support for SQLite and the sqlite3
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library. In fact, this is now a default behaviour, since you need to
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pass ~--without-sqlite3~ to Emacs’ build configuration script in order
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to prevent it.
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This comes with a new ~sqlite-mode~ which allows you to explore SQLite
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databases within Emacs and to interact with them. Check out the
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~sqlite-mode-open-file~ function!
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**** HaikuOS support
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For all three HaikuOS users out there, good news, you now have access
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to Emacs! (In all seriousness, I should check out HaikuOS one day)
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Moreover, it also supports an optional window-system port to Haiku
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with ~--with-be-app~. Be aware, you will need the Haiku Application Kit
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development headers and a C++ compiler. Otherwise, Emacs will only run
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in the terminal. If you want to also add Cairo to the mix, you can add
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~--with-be-cairo~.
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**** New major mode for C#
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~csharp-mode~ is now a native major mode for Emacs and is based on ~cc-mode~.
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*** Minor features
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**** It’s easier to use Emacs in scripts!
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If you like to write scripts and especially writing Lisp scripts,
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Emacs now supports the option ~-x~ in order to execute scripts written
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in EmacsLisp. When executing such a script with ~#!/usr/bin/emacs -x~ as
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its shebang, Emacs will not read its init file (like with ~-Q~) and will
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instead execute the Elisp code right away and return the last value to
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the caller of the script (most likely the shell you called the script
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from).
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**** TRAMP natively supports Docker, Podman, and Kubernetes
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Three new connections are now available for TRAMP:
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- ~docker~
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- ~podman~
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- ~kubernetes~
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You will now be able to access your containerized environment right
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from Emacs without the need to write custom code.
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**** Custom user directory
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It is now easier to launch custom Emacs profiles without the need of
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tools such as [[https://github.com/plexus/chemacs2][chemacs2]] with the addition of the flag ~--init-directory~.
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This can set to any directory Emacs’ ~user-emacs-directory~ which
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includes the ~init.el~ which comes along with it. Yet another reason for
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me not to use a ~.emacs~ file, but the ~init.el~ file instead.
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**** Support for Webp images
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For quite some time, Emacs has been able to display images, but not
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webp yet. Well, this is now fixed! And in fact, support for webp
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images became the default behaviour, since you need to pass
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~--without-webp~ to Emacs’ configuration script to disable webp support.
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**** C++ mode now supports the C++20 standard
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Yep. There’s nothing more to say, really. Happy coding!
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**** Better handling of ~.pdmp~ files
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Emacs has had for a few version the ability to dump its state into a
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~pdmp~ file for faster startup time. Well now, when creating such a
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file, it will include in its name a fingerprint of its current state,
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although it will still prioritize an ~emacs.pdmp~ file if it exists.
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**** Better mouse and touchpad support
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Emacs now uses XInput 2, which enables Emacs to support more input
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events, such as touchpad events. For instance, by default, a pinch
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gesture on a touchpad increases or decreases the text size of the
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current buffer. This is thanks to the new event ~pinch~, which comes
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along with ~touch-end~.
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**** Unicode 15.0 and emojis
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Emacs now supports [[https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode15.0.0/][Unicode 15.0]], which is currently the latest Unicode
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version. Although this is not directly related, quite a few new
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emoji-related features have been introduced. The new prefix ~C-x 8 e~
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now leads to a few new commands related to emojis:
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- ~C-x 8 e e~ or ~C-x 8 e i~ :: Insert an emoji (~emoji-insert~)
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- ~C-x 8 e s~ :: Search an emoji (~emoji-search~)
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- ~C-x 8 e l~ :: List all emojis in a new buffer (~emoji-list~)
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- ~C-x 8 e r~ :: Insert a recently inserted emoji (~emoji-recent~)
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- ~C-x 8 e d~ :: Describe an emoji (~emoji-describe~)
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- ~C-x 8 e +~ and ~C-x 8 e -~ :: Increase and decrease the size of any
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character, but especially emojis (~emoji-zoom-increase~ and
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~emoji-zoom-decrease~ respectively)
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There is also the new input method ~emoji~ which allows you to type for
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instance ~:grin:~ in order to get the emoji 😁.
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**** True background transparency
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Up until recently, if you wanted transparency with Emacs, you had no
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choice but to make the whole frame transparent, including text and
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images.
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Thanks to the frame parameter ~alpha-background~ and its related
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~alphaBackground~ X resource, it is now possible to set transparency
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only for the frame’s background without affecting any of the other
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elements on screen.
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**** WebKit inspector in Emacs’ WebKit widget browser
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You can now access the WebKit inspector when using the WebKit widget
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browser in Emacs, given you are using a version of Emacs which has
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been compiled with it. I wish there was a keybinding or at leas a
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function for it, but apparently you can only open it with a right
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click and select /Inspect Element/. Still nice to have.
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**** Some news for Windows
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Although it has been available for Linux users since Emacs 26.1,
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Windows finally has access to double-buffering to reduce display
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flicker. If you wish to disable it, you can set the frame parameter
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~inhibit-double-buffering~ to ~nil~.
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Emacs also follows Windows’ dark mode with Windows 10 (version 1809)
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and onwards.
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Emacs also now uses Windows’ native API to render images. This
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includes BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF images. Other formats, however,
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still rely on other dependencies and libraries to properly work, such
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as Webp images.
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*** What’s next?
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With Emacs 29 being cut, development on the master branch will now go
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towards Emacs 30. Is there anything we can expect yet?
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It’s still very early to say, most stable features merged into master
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went to Emacs 29, and only the ~feature/pkg~ and
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~feature/improved-lock-narrowing~ branches seem to have received commits
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less than a week prior to the day of writing this, and I do not know
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the status of other branches that received commits during the past few
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weeks such as ~feature/packgae+vc~ or ~feature/eglot2emacs~ (which I
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assume both got merged).
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However, there are currently talks about including ~use-package~ into
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Emacs! I’m a bit disappointed it won’t make it into Emacs 29, but
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progress is being made on ~scratch/use-package~, and you can always
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check the mailing list to check its status such as [[https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2022-11/msg01533.html][here]].
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** [EN] Automatic Meaningful Custom IDs for Org Headings :emacs:orgmode:dev:
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:PROPERTIES:
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:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: better-custom-ids-orgmode
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