Re: Dramatic upgrade (was active URLs in Gnus)

[David Kastrup]

Tim McNamara <timmcn@bitstream.net> writes:

> Following up on Reiner's suggestion about upgrading to a newer version
> of Emacs/Gnus, I hunted around to find a suitable new version.  Via
> the fink package system I found 21.2.1 which is apparently about a
> year old.

21.3 is a bugfix release and should in all cases be preferred to 21.2.

> Erm, what a *dramatic* difference!  The visual interface has been
> heavily revamped, almost looking embarrassingly like Word, actually,
> with a icon bar across the top of the display.

Emacs.toolBar: 0

into your .Xresources file (or .Xdefaults or whatever a Mac uses)
will make you get rid of it.  If you come from older versions of
Emacs, you'll know all relevant keybindings, anyway, and have better
use for the screen estate.

> The little ASCII gnu has been replaced with an attractive full-color
> cave art pictograph.  Yikes!  Now I need to find a post or two with
> an URL in it to see if the new version and updated .emacs file will
> pass the URL to Mozilla.
> 
> I feel like I've suddenly come out of the Bronze Age or something!
> Long term users may not quite recall the sense of amazement that one
> gets after changing from standard-issue GUI word processors and such
> to something with the power that Emacs has.  Yikes!

If you want to see impressive screen shots of the new display engine
in useful action, take a look at
<URL:http://preview-latex.sourceforge.net>.

And of course, for an overview over what is new, use C-h N or so
(should be advertised on the splash screen.  I can't check since the
keybindings have changed recently and I am using a developer version).

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum