home/doc/pages/changelog.asciidoc

= Changelog

This changelog contains major and/or breaking changes to Kakoune between
released versions.

== Development version

* Re-organized bundled script files directory hierarchy.

* Introduced helpers to write/read from file in scripts with
  `%file{...}` expansion and `echo -to-file <filename>`.

* Added `ClientCreate` and `ClientClose` hooks

* `edit -scratch` with no buffer name will create a new
  scratch buffer with a unique autogenerated name.

* `info -placement` is now `info -style` and supports
  `menu` and `modal` additional styles.

* `completions` option type `docstring` are now arbitrary
  kakoune commands that are run on item select.

* `InsertCompletionSelect` hook has been removed as
  `completions` commands now provides a similar feature.

* Introduced a module system using the `provide-module` and
  `require-module` commands that allows for lazily loading language
  support files with dependency resolution.

* Added a new hook `ModuleLoad` which is run when a module is loaded,
  allowing for module specific configuration.

* Shell quoting of lists is not automatic anymore, `$kak_quoted_...`
  makes it opt-in, and works for all option types.

== Kakoune 2019.01.20

* `auto_complete` has been renamed to `autocomplete` for more
  consistency.

* Start of a builtin key parser in the ncurses ui bypassing
  the ncurses one. Can be favored by setting the ui option
  `ncurses_builtin_key_parser` to `true`.

* Right clicks extend the current selection, the control modifier allows
  merging all the selections after extension.

* The `regex` highlighter now supports named capture groups to
  ease readability.

== Kakoune 2018.10.27

* `remove-hooks` <group> argument is now a regex and removes all
  hooks whose group matches it.

* `exclusive` face attribute (e) has been replaced with more
  granular `final foreground` (f), `final background` (g), and `final
  attributes` (a), or the three combined as `final` (F).  Semantics
  changed slightly as those attributes apply to the existing face as
  well (a final face will not get modified by a following face if that
  following face does not have the final attribute itself.

* `<a-m>` aka "merge consecutive selections" has been moved to `<a-_>`.
  The new `<a-m>` and `<a-M>` are now symmetrical with `m` and `M`.
  Those commands select (or extend) to the matching char backwards.

* `define-command` switches `-shell-completion` and `-shell-candidates`
  have been renamed to `-shell-script-completion` and
  `-shell-script-candidates` to make way for a new `-shell-completion`
  which completes like the shell (shell command name then filename).

* `asciidoc` is not a dependency anymore, the last file that requiered
  it (Kakoune's manpage) has been converted to troff format.

== Kakoune 2018.09.04

This version contains a significant overhaul of various Kakoune
features that can break user configuration. This was a necessary
change to make Kakoune command model cleaner and more robust.

* `%sh{...}` strings are not reparsed automatically anymore, they need
  to go through an explicit `evaluate-commands`

* The `-allow-override` switch from `define-command` has been renamed
  `-override`.

* The search prompt uses buffer word completion so that fuzzy completion
  can be used to quickly search for a buffer word.

* The `wrap` highlighter can accept a new `-marker <marker_text>` switch.

* The command line syntax has changed to support robust escaping.

  - `%sh{...}` is not expanded to multiple tokens automatically anymore,
    to evaluate its output as multiple tokens/commands, use the
    `evaluate-commands` command:

   -------------------------------------------------------------
   evaluate-commands %sh{ echo "first command; second command" }
   -------------------------------------------------------------

  - Escaping of `'` in `'...'` and `"` and `%` in `"..."` strings is done
    by doubling up (`''`, `""` and `%%`) instead of using a backslash

  - Bare words escaping has been tweaked.

  See <<command-parsing#,`:doc command-parsing`>>.

* Various lists (options, registers...) in Kakoune are now written using
  the command line syntax:

  - `set-register` now take an arbitrary number of parameters and sets
    the register to multiple strings. `%reg` expands to a list of strings.

  - the `$kak_reg_*` environment variable is now a list, `$kak_main_reg_*`
    provides the previous behaviour.

  - `%opt` expands list options as list of strings.

  - selection descs are whitespaces separated instead of `:` separated

* Highlighters syntax has changed to permit explicit naming and remove
  highlighter specific name parameters (such as for the group highlighter)
  `add-highlighter <path>/<name> <type> <params>` is the new syntax.

* Regions highlighters have been overhauled and are now specified with
  a sequence of commands instead of a single one:

  ------------------------------------------------------------------
  add-highlighter <path>/<name> regions
  add-highlighter <path>/<name>/<region name> region <begin> <end> \
  <type> <params>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------

  The recursion regex is opt-in through a `-recurse <recurse>` flag.

  They also are not necessarily groups anymore, a region can directly
  apply any other highlighter

  See <<highlighters#,`:doc highlighters`>>

* Highlighter type names have been unified, types that used `_` as
  word separators, such as `show_whitespaces` are now using `-`
  (`show-whitespace`).

* `a` on end of line is not treated specially anymore, it will start
  inserting on the next character, which will be the first character
  of the next line.

* `autoshowcompl` options has been renamed `auto_complete` and is
  now a `flags(insert|prompt)` option, allowing more granular
  configuration of when the completions should be displayed
  automatically.

* Prompt editing shortcuts have been changed to match readline.

== Kakoune 2018.04.13

First official Kakoune release.