customized default face doesn't work on new frames

customized default face doesn't work on new frames

[Dave Love]

If you customize the default face, it doesn't take effect on
subsequently-created frames, which is surprising.  The code somewhat
suggests this is intentional, but I can't see why and the behaviour
simply seems wrong.

[I'm running up against this and other things trying to provide a
useful interface to customizing fontsets in Emacs 22, so would like to
know if there's any good reason for the status quo.]

Re: customized default face doesn't work on new frames

[Richard Stallman]

    If you customize the default face, it doesn't take effect on
    subsequently-created frames, which is surprising.  The code somewhat
    suggests this is intentional, but I can't see why and the behaviour
    simply seems wrong.

I think that is a bug.  Where exactly does the code suggest this was
intentional?

I tried it just now, changing the background of `default' to purple,
and it did take affect for subsequently created frames--almost.  It
changed the background for text, but it did not work quite right in
setting the background for empty areas of the screen.  Is that what
you observed?

I have a suspicion that this relates to screen-gamma.

Re: customized default face doesn't work on new frames

[Oliver Scholz]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     If you customize the default face, it doesn't take effect on
>     subsequently-created frames, which is surprising.  The code somewhat
>     suggests this is intentional, but I can't see why and the behaviour
>     simply seems wrong.
>
> I think that is a bug.  Where exactly does the code suggest this was
> intentional?
>
> I tried it just now, changing the background of `default' to purple,
> and it did take affect for subsequently created frames--almost.

The behaviour is different for different face attributes. For example
changing the height of the font is not propagated to new frames.

The same is true for the lisp functions:


Work for new frames:

(set-face-attribute 'default nil :foreground "red")
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :background "cyan")


Don't work for new frames:

(set-face-attribute 'default nil :height 240)
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :family "times")

    Oliver
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Re: customized default face doesn't work on new frames

[Dave Love]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     If you customize the default face, it doesn't take effect on
>     subsequently-created frames, which is surprising.  The code somewhat
>     suggests this is intentional, but I can't see why and the behaviour
>     simply seems wrong.
> 
> I think that is a bug.  Where exactly does the code suggest this was
> intentional?

Sorry, I should have written ``customize the _font of_ the default
face''.

`face-set-after-frame-default' makes a special case of `(equal face
'default)'.

> I tried it just now, changing the background of `default' to purple,
> and it did take affect for subsequently created frames--almost.  It
> changed the background for text, but it did not work quite right in
> setting the background for empty areas of the screen.  Is that what
> you observed?

No, I was only interested in the font.

Re: customized default face doesn't work on new frames

[Richard Stallman]

    `face-set-after-frame-default' makes a special case of `(equal face
    'default)'.

I think the reason for this is that the default face works a different
way.  Setting the attributes of the default face alters frame parameters,
and those frame parameters are supposed to affect other frames.

The code that alters frame parameters when you change the default
face seems to be in Finternal_set_lisp_face_attribute in xfaces.c.
Can someone debug why it doesn't work?