NEWS.org

AUCTeX NEWS – History of notable and user-visible changes

[Unreleased]

Added

• Improve support for folding of citations macros. The current folding [c] is changed to a more descriptive version, using author names and publication years, like [Ne21] or [ABC99]. These are extracted from any bib files referenced in the document or specified by the user option TeX-fold-bib-file.
• Add support for folding of \begin{env} and \end{env} macros. The replacement specifiers are controlled by the custom option TeX-fold-begin-end-spec-list.
• Add new custom option TeX-fold-alert-color which determines the color used when folding the \alert macro, defaults to red.
• Add new support files style/inlinegraphicx.el and style/minted2.el (style/minted.el is updated to package v3.1.2).
• Add preliminary support for parsing \graphicspath in style/graphicx.el.

Changed

• Change the default value of LaTeX-insert-into-comments from t to nil.

[14.0.7] - 2024-10-05

Added

• Respect the value of TeX-output-dir when processing files with latexmk. This means that the default value of TeX-command-list is changed.
• Add new support files style/authblk.el, style/langscibook.cls, style/lstautogobble.el, style/lstlinebgrd.el, style/ninecolors.el, style/supertabular.el, style/tabularray.el and style/xtab.el.

Changed

• AUCTeX 13.3 marks the last standalone tarball release. From now on, AUCTeX releases are made available through the Emacs Lisp Package Archive (ELPA). Distro packagers are encouraged to use the ELPA packages as-is and install them under one of the new Emacs locations for system-wide packages, see package-directory-list.

  At the same time, development is now done on the main branch and the master branch has been deleted. Its last state has been pushed as auctex-13 branch for archiving purposes but it won’t get any updates anymore.

  For users who tracked the master branch: Do git switch main to switch to the main branch where development takes place nowadays.

• Move additions to the variable LaTeX-indent-environment-list for various tabular environments to latex.el from the respective style files.

Fixed

• Fold argument of verbatim macros more accurately.

Removed

• Remove the possibility to disable the side-wide installation with:

  (unload-feature 'tex-site)
      

  Using this form when installed from ELPA will throw an error.

[14.0.6] - 2024-06-30

Added

• Complete support for in-buffer completion of color support macros.
• Add new support files style/contract.el, style/diagbox.el and style/standalone.el.

Fixed

• Add appropriate delete-selection properties for LaTeX-insert-left-brace, TeX-insert-dollar and TeX-insert-backslash that differentiate between the “electric” and “just-insert-the-symbol” behavior. That should simplify cooperation with other electric modes.

  As a result of this adjustment, the behavior of TeX-insert-dollar is affected in some ways:

  • With raw prefix argument C-u, $ (TeX-insert-dollar) now inserts four dollars as opposed to one. This behavior is in-line with other symbols, in particular " (TeX-insert-quote) and \ (TeX-insert-backslash). If you need one literal $, you can type C-1 $ or C-q $.
  • We no longer have explicit support of the special behavior that if TeX-electric-math is non-~nil~ and point is inside math mode right between a couple of single dollars, pressing $ will insert another pair of dollar signs and leave the point between them.

    It still works as before if TeX-electric-math is pair of dollars while it inserts \( and \) when TeX-electric-math is ("\(" . "\)").

  • When TeX-electric-math is a pair of dollars and the point is in inline math (without active region), $ inserts two dollars, not one dollar which just closes the math mode.
• Recognize .ltx extension as regular LaTeX file.

Removed

• Delete function LaTeX-env-contents.
• Delete obsolete variables TeX-symbol-marker, TeX-symbol-marker-pos, TeX-dollar-sign, TeX-dollar-string and TeX-dollar-regexp.
• Delete obsolete minor-mode TeX-Omega-mode.

[14.0.5] - 2024-05-19

Added

• Add support for indirect buffers cloned from buffers visiting a file. In indirect buffer, preview-latex works correctly when the command preview-region is invoked. The command preview-document puts preview images in the base buffer, not in the indirect buffer itself.
• Add preliminary support for processing files with latexmk. Support for dvipdfmx and the choice for viewer after compilation are not optimal, yet. Overall, the support comes close to what the auctex-latexmk library provides.
• Add new command TeX-fold-section (bound to C-c C-o C-s) which hides all configured macros in the section containing point when TeX-fold-mode is active. The unfold counterpart TeX-fold-clearout-section is bound to C-c C-o s.
• Add new custom option TeX-fold-region-functions which is a list of additional functions to call when folding a region.
• Add new custom option TeX-fold-auto-reveal which controls how the original source text is revealed when user clicks the folded portion by mouse.
• Add new custom options TeX-fold-auto-reveal-commands and preview-auto-reveal-commands which are lists of commands revealing folded or previewed buffer text.
• Add new custom option preview-protect-point which determines whether previews generated on top of the current point should be temporarily opened (nil by default).
• Add new custom option preview-leave-open-previews-visible which determines if the preview code stays visible once opened.
• Change the default value of TeX-one-master in order to recognize the suffix .ltx as regular TeX files.
• Add new custom option ConTeXt-paragraph-commands containing a list of macros which should begin their own line.
• Support query and insert of mcite compatibility macro (style/biblatex.el).
• Support the \verbatiminput* macro (style/verbatim.el).
• Add new support file style/amsrefs.el.

Fixed

• Adjust options when processing files with ConTeXt: Remove obsolete --texutil, use --synctex=repeat and omit --nonstop when TeX-source-correlate-mode is enabled.

[14.0.4] - 2024-03-31

Added

• Support completion for many commands described in clsguide.tex, fntguide.tex and usrguide.tex.
• Provide new custom option LaTeX-flymake-chktex-options to enable or disable specific warnings of chktex backend used by Flymake.
• Provide new custom option TeX-kill-process-without-query which controls if user is asked before aborting a running process for a TeX document.

Fixed

• Improve guessing names for headers used in Imenu.

Removed

• Revert usage of :local tag inside defcustom. This tag isn’t handled correctly in Emacs 27.1 and breaks AUCTeX.

[14.0.3] - 2024-02-20

Fixed

• Cater for former mode name in customized TeX-command-list.
• Fix and enhance pseudo-parent mode facility.

[14.0.2] - 2024-02-09

Fixed

• Fix ELPA releases.

[14.0.1] - 2024-02-08

Added

• AUCTeX changes major mode names. Its primary purpose is to avoid conflicts with Emacs built-in TeX major modes. It also improves consistency of the source code.
  • The overview of the former names and new names are:

    Former name	New name
    plain-tex-mode	plain-TeX-mode
    latex-mode	LaTeX-mode
    doctex-mode	docTeX-mode
    texinfo-mode	Texinfo-mode
    ams-tex-mode	AmSTeX-mode
    japanese-plain-tex-mode	japanese-plain-TeX-mode
    japanese-latex-mode	japanese-LaTeX-mode

    The undocumented modes context-en-mode and context-nl-mode were deleted.

  • We paid much attention to the compatibility and expect that almost no particular treatment on the user side is needed. For example, the names of the keymaps and mode hooks remain unchanged, and the mode: tag in the file local variables in the existing files works with old mode names. See below for more details
  • If your Emacs is 29 or newer and you use desktop.el to save and restore Emacs sessions, be careful before you update AUCTeX; You should attempt to update only after
    1. you kill all buffer under former AUCTeX modes which have overlapped name with Emacs built-in TeX modes, and
    2. you terminate the current Emacs session.

    The modes with such overlapped name are plain-tex-mode, latex-mode, doctex-mode and texinfo-mode. (The above prescription ensures no buffer of such modes is recorded in the desktop file. Otherwise those buffers would be restored in the built-in modes, not AUCTeX modes, after the update of AUCTeX.)

  • New mode names are chosen to match the existing variables, so most user customizations as well as the third party libraries would continue to work without modification. For example, names of keymaps and hooks don’t change as stated above. (AmS-TeX-mode-hook is renamed to AmSTeX-mode-hook, but compatibility alias is provided.)
  • Now TeX-add-local-master adds entry of new mode names such as

    %%% Local Variables:
    %%% mode: LaTeX      <-- not `latex'
    %%% End:
            

  • The compatibility with the former mode names with respect to invoking the major mode are retained.
    1. Former modes which overlap with built-in modes, namely plain-tex-mode, latex-mode, doctex-mode, texinfo-mode and tex-mode are handled by redirections; the same override advices as before are continued to used for Emacs<29 while major-mode-remap-alist is used for Emacs 29 and later. (Therefore, if there are user codes which call latex-mode directly, built-in latex-mode runs instead of AUCTeX LaTeX-mode in Emacs 29 and later.)

       These redirections still honor your customization to TeX-modes option. Thus you are served by built-in plain-tex-mode and AUCTeX LaTeX-mode if you exclude plain-tex-mode from TeX-modes.

    2. Other former names, e.g. context-mode and japanese-latex-mode, are handled by aliases such as

       (defalias 'context-mode #'ConTeXt-mode)
                   

  • New modes recognize directory local variables prepaired for the former mode name. For example, directory local variables for latex-mode are valid in LaTeX-mode as well. So you don’t have to rewrite every former mode name to the new one in .dir-locals.el.
  • Your abbrevs are preserved. For example, latex-mode-abbrev-table, if exists, is automatically included as a parent of LaTeX-mode-abbrev-table.
  • Now all major modes are defined by define-derived-mode, so standard inheritance of keymaps, syntax tables etc. takes place. The inheritance relations are:

    text-mode      --+-- TeX-mode
                     +-- Texinfo-mode
    
    TeX-mode       --+-- plain-TeX-mode
                     +-- LaTeX-mode
                     +-- ConTeXt-mode
    
    plain-TeX-mode --+-- AmSTeX-mode
                     +-- japanese-plain-TeX-mode
    
    LaTeX-mode     --+-- docTeX-mode
                     +-- japanese-LaTeX-mode
            

    These inheritance relations are taken into account for directory local variables in the standard way. For example, directory local variables for LaTeX-mode are applied to docTeX-mode now.

    Note that TeX-mode isn’t meant for use for end users. It is only meant for the base mode for other major modes. Its role is to provide base keymap, hook and syntax table under the same name with the former AUCTeX and run the common initialization code.

    Now that all modes have text-mode as their ancestor, they inherit its keymap and syntax table. In addition, dir local vars for text-mode are applied to all AUCTeX major mode.

    However, Texinfo-mode is exceptional in the following two aspects:

    1. It doesn’t inherit text-mode-syntax-table because it simply uses built-in mode’s texinfo-mode-syntax-table, which is independent of text-mode-syntax-table. This situation is the same with the former AUCTeX Texinfo mode.
    2. Texinfo-mode-map has TeX-mode-map as its direct parent. This is the same with the former AUCTeX Texinfo mode. Now it inherits text-mode-map indirectly through TeX-mode-map.
  • There are new keymaps, hooks and abbrev tables: Texinfo-mode-abbrev-table, japanese-plain-TeX-mode-map, japanese-LaTeX-mode-map, japanese-plain-TeX-mode-hook, japanese-LaTeX-mode-hook, japanese-plain-TeX-mode-abbrev-table, japanese-LaTeX-mode-abbrev-table.
• AUCTeX now requires GNU Emacs 27.1 or higher.