RE: setting default font name

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> To avoid any "default-font" in the remainder of the init file I created
> a little test situation. I run:
> 
>   $ emacs -q -l .emacs-test
> 
> and in .emacs-test is nothing but:
> 
>  (set-face-attribute
>   'default t :font
>   "-bitstream-Courier 10
>    Pitch-normal-normal-normal-*-16-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1")
> 
> When emacs opens, I do M-x describe font and am told the current font is
> Deju Sans.

(I assume there was no newline char in the middle of that
font name, in your test.)

So you didn't get the error you reported earlier.
Do you have that bitstream font installed?
What do you see in buffer *Messages* about this - anything?

What happens if you use `emacs -Q' and you evaluate the sexp
in *scratch*, instead of putting it in an otherwise empty init
file?