Subject: 24.3.50; `default' clause in face specs with custom-theme-set-faces doesn't work as advertised

From: Frank Terbeck <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 23:53:53 +0200

The manual says this:

  ‘default’
       This element of SPEC doesn’t match any terminal; instead, it
       specifies defaults that apply to all terminals. This element, if
       used, must be the first element of SPEC. Each of the following
       elements can override any or all of these defaults.

I tried using that in a theme, but the "override" part didn't work.

So I did this from "emacs -Q" to see if something else in my setup was
screwing things up for me:

(deftheme foobar "Foobar theme")
(custom-theme-set-faces 'foobar
  '(default ((default :slant normal
                      :weight bold
                      :foreground "white"
                      :background "black")
             (t :foreground "blue"))))

What I would expect is the `blue' foreground definition from the `t'
clause to override the `white' foreground definition from the `default'
clause. But alas, it doesn't work, the foreground remains white.

I asked gnu.emacs.help whether I was misinterpreting things, but the
person who felt compelled to reply agreed that this seems to be a bug.

So here's my report of the issue.

Regards, Frank

In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.4.2)
 of 2013-12-25 on jim, modified by Debian
 (emacs-snapshot package, version 2:20131221-1)
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11204000
System Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 7.6 (wheezy)

Configured using:
 `configure --build x86_64-linux-gnu --host x86_64-linux-gnu
 --prefix=/usr --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib
 --localstatedir=/var --infodir=/usr/share/info/emacs-snapshot
 --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes
 --enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs-snapshot:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/24.3.50/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/24.3.50/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp
 --with-crt-dir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ --with-x=yes
 --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 --with-imagemagick=yes 'CFLAGS=-DDEBIAN
 -DSITELOAD_PURESIZE_EXTRA=5000 -g -O2' CPPFLAGS=-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2
 'LDFLAGS=-g -Wl,--as-needed -znocombreloc''

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_GB.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
( d e f t h e e <backspace> m e SPC f o o b a r SPC 
" F o o b a r SPC t h e m e " ) <return> <backspace> 
C-j ( c u s t o m e <backspace> - t h e m e - s e t 
- f a c e s <return> <tab> ' f o o b a r <return> <tab> 
( <backspace> ' ( d e f a u l t SPC ( ( d e f a u l 
t SPC : s l a n g <backspace> t SPC n o r m a l SPC 
: w e i g h t SPC d e f a u l t C-w C-w <backspace> 
<backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> 
<backspace> b o l d SPC : f o r e g r o u n d SPC " 
w h i t e " SPC : b a c k g r o u n d " SPC <backspace> 
<backspace> SPC " b l a c k " ) <return> ( t SPC : 
f o r e g r o u n d SPC " b l u e " ) ) ) ) C-j M-x 
r e p o r t <tab> <return>

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
kill-region: The mark is not set now, so there is no region [2 times]

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message format-spec rfc822 mml
easymenu mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231
mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums
mm-util help-fns mail-prsvr mail-utils time-date tooltip electric
uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar
dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode
prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar
mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian
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minibuffer nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files
text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule
custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process
dbusbind gfilenotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting
font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)