bug#4295: 23.1; saving default font

[Jim Mahoney <mahoney@marlboro.edu>]

I'm running on Mac OS X, v 10.5.8.
I'm a longtime user of XEmacs,
and am trying this recent Emacs release.

I was impressed that the menu Options >> Set Default Font...
brought up the standard Apple font dialog, and that I was
able to set a default font for the current window,
namely Anonymous Pro 18.

However, there doesn't seem to be any way to easily preserve
that choice over multiple Emacs launches.  Options >> Save Defaults
is the obvious choice, but it has no apparent effect - the next
Emacs launch reverts to the default font, and I see no
"Anonymous Pro" in ~/.emacs or anywhere else I could find.

Nor could I find anything in the customization
menus that would preserve this simple "default font/size" choice;
instead, the docs take me (as is the emacs/xemacs usual) through
the bewildering choices of X11,faces,etc,etc.  I mucked about for
a bit but could find nothing that would preserve this simple
default font font choice.

I'm looking for an programming editor to suggest to my students.
I really like emacs, but setting it up has often been problematic.

This version looks like it has good Mac OS integration,
but if even this first customization step failed,
my confidence isn't high.

With the apparent requirement of setting the font each time
the application launches, it isn't going to do me much good.

------------------------------------


In GNU Emacs 23.1.1 (i386-apple-darwin9.8.0, NS apple-appkit-949.54)
 of 2009-08-16 on black.local
Windowing system distributor `Apple', version 10.3.949
configured using `configure  '--with-ns''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: nil
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: nil
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Info

Minor modes in effect:
  highlight-changes-visible-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  global-auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<options> <menu-set-font> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-2> <help-echo>
<down-mouse-1> <mouse-2> <help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar>
<options> <customize> <customize-saved> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <menu-bar> <options> <customize> <customize-changed-options>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <options> <customize>
<customize-face> <return> C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n
C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-v C-v C-v C-v C-v C-v C-v C-v
C-v C-v C-v C-v C-v C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p <escape>
< C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> C-p C-a C-p C-p
u C-s d e f a u l t SPC f o n C-a C-p C-p u <help-echo>
<help-echo> <menu-bar> <options> <customize> <customize-browse>
<help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-2> <help-echo> <down-mouse-1>
<mouse-2> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <wheel-down>
<double-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down>
<wheel-up> <double-wheel-up> <triple-wheel-up> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-2> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <wheel-down> <double-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down>
<triple-wheel-up> <triple-wheel-up> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<down-mouse-1> <drag-mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <help-echo>
<wheel-down> <wheel-down> <wheel-down> <double-wheel-down>
<triple-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down>
<triple-wheel-down> <wheel-down> <double-wheel-down>
<triple-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-up>
<triple-wheel-up> <triple-wheel-up> <wheel-down> <double-wheel-down>
<triple-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down>
<help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-2> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <help-echo>
<down-mouse-1> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-2> <wheel-down>
<double-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down> <triple-wheel-down>
<wheel-up> <double-wheel-up> <wheel-up> <double-wheel-up>
<triple-wheel-up> <triple-wheel-up> <triple-wheel-up>
<down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> C-s f o n t C-a C-n C-s C-s
C-n C-a C-p C-a <return> C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n
C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n
C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n
C-n C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p
C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p
C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n
C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n <help-echo> <down-mouse-1>
<mouse-2> <help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-2> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <help-menu>
<send-emacs-bug-report>

Recent messages:
Creating group state...
Creating group... done
Creating customization items ...done
Resetting customization items...done
Creating customization setup...done
Mark set [2 times]
Mark saved where search started [2 times]
customize-saved: No saved user options
mouse-select-font: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil
byte-code: Beginning of buffer [5 times]