What is different about Emacs 31?

Here’s a selection of changes in Emacs 31 as compared to Emacs 30. The full list is too long to fit here, but can be read in the Emacs NEWS file by typing C-h n inside Emacs.

• Using the mouse to control Emacs is enabled by default in most terminals.
• New user-lisp/ subdirectory of your Emacs configuration directory. Lisp files placed here will be automatically compiled and loaded without additional configuration.
• Child frames (used e.g. for completion and tooltips) are now supported on text frames.
• Various improvements to the way the *Completions* buffer works. In particular, it can be configured to be displayed immediately and to be updated dynamically as you type.
• Commands to split windows now make better choices between splitting vertically and splitting horizontally. Whether the frame is landscape or portrait now has more of an influence.
• New built-in facility to hide minor mode lighters: mode-line-collapse-minor-modes.
• New commands to interactively store buffers and files in registers: buffer-to-register and file-to-register.
• You can now bookmark local and remote shell buffers.
• SHR slices large images into rows, so scrolling no longer jumps past the entire image.
• Ispell can now save spelling corrections as abbrevs, such that if you make the same mistake again it will be immediately corrected.
• Typing d during query-replace shows a diff buffer with the replacements.
• The *grep* and *xref* now support editable modes, like Occur Edit mode. The edits will be reflected in buffers visiting the originating files.
• New VC commands to handle repositories with multiple working trees. The VC Directory and Log View mode interfaces have seen a number of usability improvements.
• New feature to review changes to packages before installing or upgrading them, and new minor mode to automatically suggest packages to install when visiting files with no specific major mode yet available.
• The Speedbar can be configured to open in a window instead of a frame.
• New theme, the Newcomers Presets theme, designed to make Emacs more approachable for new users. It is basically a set of alternative defaults.
• New library to handle iCalendar (RFC 5545) data, with integrations for the Calendar and Diary packages.