bug#4295: 23.1; saving default font

bug#4295: 23.1; saving default font

[Jim Mahoney]

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]

bug#4295: 23.1; saving default font

[Stefan Monnier]

> 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.

I cannot reproduce it under GNU/Linux.
Can you try it with an empty .emacs ?


        Stefan

bug#4295: 23.1; saving default font

[Stefan Monnier]

> I have tried it with several .emacs file variations.
> "Save Defaults" on my system doesn't seem to modify .emacs.
> I see a "loading battery" message in the status line,
> whatever that means.

It means there is some customization somewhere (`battery' is not loaded
by default, AFAIK).  It may be triggering the problem, somehow.
Please try and figure out why/where is `battery' loaded.


        Stefan


SP: Please keep 4295@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com in the Cc.

bug#4295: 23.1; saving default font

[Jim Mahoney]

I've played around with this a bit more,
but haven't seen anything change, nor can
do I see any customization that would be interfering.

* I did have a macports emacs installed in
  /opt/local ; I've disabled it with no change in behavior.

* I have likewise disable my ~/.xemacs/ folder; I don't
  know if emacs uses that.

* I can't find a "battery" initialization in another emacs,
  nor have I see noticed that before.

* Apropos on "battery" shows "display-battery-mode";
  turning that on and then Options >> Save Options does
  write that to ~/.emacs :

thirty:Library$ more ~/.emacs
(custom-set-variables
  ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
  ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
  ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
  ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(display-battery-mode t))
(custom-set-faces
  ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
  ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
  ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
  ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 )

The status bar says "wrote /Users/mahoney/.emacs" after Save Options,
when I set or unset the "display-battery-mode".  However the default
font choice isn't saved.

So it knows how to write to ~/.emacs ; however, the "default font"
choice isn't seen as something that emacs needs to save.

The font choice dialog is mac-specific, as the movie link
I sent you shows.  If you haven't tested it on a Mac,
then it wouldn't surprise me that you can't see the bug.

As I said earlier, I would be interested in an emacs
with a simple Mac integration; however, this one doesn't
seem to pass this first test I tried.

I wish you all luck with it, and submitted the bug to
be helpful, but am not particularly interested in spending
the time to pursue this.

Good luck,

Jim Mahoney
Marlboro College

Stefan Monnier wrote:
>> I have tried it with several .emacs file variations.
>> "Save Defaults" on my system doesn't seem to modify .emacs.
>> I see a "loading battery" message in the status line,
>> whatever that means.
> 
> It means there is some customization somewhere (`battery' is not loaded
> by default, AFAIK).  It may be triggering the problem, somehow.
> Please try and figure out why/where is `battery' loaded.
> 
> 
>         Stefan
> 
> 
> SP: Please keep 4295@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com in the Cc.
>