GNU bug report logs - #29630
25.3; Unable to change fontset using :family face attribute

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Thomas Morgan <tlm <at> ziiuu.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 25.3; Unable to change fontset using :family face attribute
Date: Sat, 09 Dec 2017 16:26:48 -0500

I started Emacs with `emacs -Q' and created a new fontset by entering
the following expression in *scratch* and evaluating it with C-M-x.

  (create-fontset-from-fontset-spec
   "-*-Liberation Mono-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-0-fontset-liberation")

I wanted to use this as the default font for the frame so I checked
the Emacs Lisp manual.  Section 37.12.1, Face Attributes, explains 
the :family attribute:

  Font family or fontset (a string).  See (emacs)Fonts, for more
  information about font families.  The function `font-family-list'
  (see below) returns a list of available family names.
  See (elisp)Fontsets, for information about fontsets.

According to this, a string representing a fontset can be used
as the value of the :family attribute.

I tried using the fontset alias "fontset-liberation" by evaluating
the following expression in *scratch* as above.

  (progn
    (set-face-attribute 'default nil :family "fontset-liberation")
    (font-at 0 nil "a"))

This changed the frame's font to something other than Liberation Mono
and returned:

  #<font-object "-CYRE-Podkova-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1">

I expected it to be Liberation Mono.

I thought perhaps the problem was that I used the fontset alias
rather than the fontset name, so I tried the fontset name instead:

  (progn
    (set-face-attribute 'default nil :family
                        "-*-liberation mono-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-0-fontset-liberation")
    (font-at 0 nil "a"))

This signaled an error: "Invalid face foundry".

I checked the manual again and read the sections linked to from the
quote above: (emacs)Fonts and (elisp)Fontsets.  They don't seem to
explain how to specify a fontset with the :family face attribute.

The documentation for the :font attribute doesn't say that it can 
be a fontset.  But (elisp)Font and Color Parameters says the `font'
frame parameter can be the name of a fontset and the frame parameter 
is "equivalent to the `font' attribute of the `default' face".  So 
one can infer that the :font attribute of a face can be a fontset 
name.  I tested this:

  (progn
    (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font
                        "-*-liberation mono-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-0-fontset-liberation")
    (font-at 0 nil "a"))

This changes the font to Liberation Mono as expected:

  #<font-object "-1ASC-Liberation Mono-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1">

I also tried equivalent expressions with set-face-font and
using the fontset alias, all of which succeeded.

The font is correct but the fontset is actually fontset-auto1, 
not fontset-liberation.  I'll make another report about that.

I think the documentation for the :family attribute should be 
changed to explain how to refer to a fontset if it's possible
to do that.  If it's not possible to specify a fontset with the
:family attribute, the text about fontsets should be removed.

Here is information from report-emacs-bug:

In GNU Emacs 25.3.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.22.21)
 of 2017-11-05 built on localhost
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11905000
Configured using:
 'configure --disable-dependency-tracking
 --prefix=/nix/store/7px74nmmy9wnl594jsk0lcgz1ygsbwfj-emacs-25.3
 --with-modules --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 --with-xft'

Configured features:
XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND DBUS GSETTINGS NOTIFY LIBSELINUX GNUTLS
LIBXML2 FREETYPE XFT ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS GTK3 X11 MODULES

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: en_US.utf8
  value of $LC_COLLATE: C
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-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 messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Mark set
"-*-liberation mono-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-0-fontset-liberation"
Mark set
#<font-object "-CYRE-Podkova-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-*-0-iso10646-1">
Mark set
Entering debugger...
Back to top level
Mark set
#<font-object "-1ASC-Liberation Mono-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1">

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr emacsbug message dired format-spec rfc822 mml
mml-sec password-cache epg epg-config gnus-util 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
help-mode easymenu cl-loaddefs pcase cl-lib debug time-date mule-util
tooltip eldoc electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type
mwheel x-win term/common-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt
fringe tabulated-list newcomment elisp-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register
page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock
font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cl-generic cham georgian
utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean
japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european
ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese charscript case-table epa-hook
jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer cl-preloaded 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 dbusbind inotify dynamic-setting
system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x
multi-tty make-network-process emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 100076 5220)
 (symbols 48 21018 0)
 (miscs 40 3069 127)
 (strings 32 18822 4645)
 (string-bytes 1 764635)
 (vectors 16 15076)
 (vector-slots 8 511125 5409)
 (floats 8 167 42)
 (intervals 56 249 0)
 (buffers 976 18))

Message #8 received at 29630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Thomas Morgan <tlm <at> ziiuu.com>, Kenichi Handa <handa <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 29630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#29630: 25.3;
 Unable to change fontset using :family face attribute
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2017 19:24:26 +0200

> From: Thomas Morgan <tlm <at> ziiuu.com>
> Date: Sat, 09 Dec 2017 16:26:48 -0500
> 
> The documentation for the :font attribute doesn't say that it can 
> be a fontset.  But (elisp)Font and Color Parameters says the `font'
> frame parameter can be the name of a fontset and the frame parameter 
> is "equivalent to the `font' attribute of the `default' face".  So 
> one can infer that the :font attribute of a face can be a fontset 
> name.  I tested this:
> 
>   (progn
>     (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font
>                         "-*-liberation mono-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-0-fontset-liberation")
>     (font-at 0 nil "a"))
> 
> This changes the font to Liberation Mono as expected:
> 
>   #<font-object "-1ASC-Liberation Mono-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1">
> 
> I also tried equivalent expressions with set-face-font and
> using the fontset alias, all of which succeeded.
> 
> The font is correct but the fontset is actually fontset-auto1, 
> not fontset-liberation.  I'll make another report about that.
> 
> I think the documentation for the :family attribute should be 
> changed to explain how to refer to a fontset if it's possible
> to do that.  If it's not possible to specify a fontset with the
> :family attribute, the text about fontsets should be removed.

Thanks, I've updated the documentation to match what the code does.

I'm CC'ing Handa-san, who might know more about this, and maybe
explain how to fix the code to accept fontsets as value of :family.
Currently, it doesn't seem to work, and I don't know enough about this
to figure out whether it ever did or was supposed to.  This whole area
of Emacs is awfully under-documented.

Message #11 received at 29630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: handa <handa <at> gnu.org>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 29630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, tlm <at> ziiuu.com
Subject: Re: bug#29630: 25.3;
 Unable to change fontset using :family face attribute
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2017 00:19:16 +0900

> > From: Thomas Morgan <tlm <at> ziiuu.com>
> > Date: Sat, 09 Dec 2017 16:26:48 -0500
> > 
> > The documentation for the :font attribute doesn't say that it can 
> > be a fontset.  But (elisp)Font and Color Parameters says the `font'
> > frame parameter can be the name of a fontset and the frame parameter 
> > is "equivalent to the `font' attribute of the `default' face".  So 
> > one can infer that the :font attribute of a face can be a fontset 
> > name.  I tested this:
> > 
> >   (progn
> >     (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font
> >                         "-*-liberation mono-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-0-fontset-liberation")
> >     (font-at 0 nil "a"))
> > 
> > This changes the font to Liberation Mono as expected:
> > 
> >   #<font-object "-1ASC-Liberation Mono-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1">
> > 
> > I also tried equivalent expressions with set-face-font and
> > using the fontset alias, all of which succeeded.
> > 
> > The font is correct but the fontset is actually fontset-auto1, 
> > not fontset-liberation.

Here, fontset works as just a provider of font-related properties
(family, weight, size, etc), and then, based on the selected font, a new
fontset is automatically created.  This roundabout behavior was not to
break (Emacs-internal) backward compatibility by introducing the concept
of fontset.

At least, calling set-fontset-font for the fontset of the current frame
should work... and worked as far as I rememnber... but I've just found
that this does not work with the latest Emacs?!?

(set-fontset-font nil 'unicode-bmp "dejavu sans mono")
(set-fontset-font nil 'unicode-bmp "Freemono" nil 'append)

I'm now checking what is wrong.

---
K. Handa
handa <at> gnu.org

Message #14 received at 29630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Thomas Morgan <tlm <at> ziiuu.com>
To: handa <handa <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 29630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#29630: 25.3;
 Unable to change fontset using :family face attribute
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2017 21:25:22 -0800

handa <handa <at> gnu.org> writes:

> Here, fontset works as just a provider of font-related properties
> (family, weight, size, etc), and then, based on the selected font, a new
> fontset is automatically created.  This roundabout behavior was not to
> break (Emacs-internal) backward compatibility by introducing the concept
> of fontset.

Thank you, Handa-san.

(elisp)Face Attributes says this:

`:font'
     [...] If you specify a string, the contents of the string should
     be a font name (*note (emacs)Fonts::); if the font name is an XLFD
     containing wildcards, Emacs chooses the first font matching those
     wildcards. [...]

Would it make sense to add the following after the quoted sentence?

  You may also specify a fontset name as a string.  For reasons of
  backward compatibility, in the case of the `default' face this may
  automatically generate a new fontset based on the family, weight,
  size, and other font-related properties of the specified fontset.

It would probably also be helpful to document the :fontset attribute
in the manual, if that's the proper way to specify a fontset for the
the frame's default face.

> At least, calling set-fontset-font for the fontset of the current frame
> should work... and worked as far as I rememnber... but I've just found
> that this does not work with the latest Emacs?!?
>
> (set-fontset-font nil 'unicode-bmp "dejavu sans mono")
> (set-fontset-font nil 'unicode-bmp "Freemono" nil 'append)
>
> I'm now checking what is wrong.

This seems to work for me with Emacs 25.3.1.  To test it I started Emacs
with `emacs -Q' and evaluated this in *scratch*:

(progn
  (set-fontset-font nil 'unicode-bmp "DejaVu Sans Mono")
  (set-fontset-font nil 'unicode-bmp "FreeMono" nil 'append)
  (list (font-at 0 nil "G") (font-at 0 nil "⅁")))

(The second character is TURNED SANS-SERIF CAPITAL G, which is covered
by FreeMono but not by DejaVu Sans Mono.)

As expected, this was displayed in the echo area:

(#<font-object "-PfEd-DejaVu Sans Mono-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1">
 #<font-object "-GNU -FreeMono-normal-normal-normal-*-15-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1">)

Message #17 received at 29630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: handa <handa <at> gnu.org>
To: Thomas Morgan <tlm <at> ziiuu.com>
Cc: 29630 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, eliz <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#29630: 25.3;
 Unable to change fontset using :family face attribute
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2017 21:33:04 +0900

In article <87zi68elz1.fsf <at> ziiuu.com>, Thomas Morgan <tlm <at> ziiuu.com> writes:

> `:font'
>      [...] If you specify a string, the contents of the string should
>      be a font name (*note (emacs)Fonts::); if the font name is an XLFD
>      containing wildcards, Emacs chooses the first font matching those
>      wildcards. [...]

> Would it make sense to add the following after the quoted sentence?

>   You may also specify a fontset name as a string.  For reasons of
>   backward compatibility, in the case of the `default' face this may
>   automatically generate a new fontset based on the family, weight,
>   size, and other font-related properties of the specified fontset.

The generation of a new fontset happens every time you change a font of
the default face; not only when you specify a fontset for :font.

So, here, as an explanation of :font, I think what we have to say is that
specifying a fontset name is the same as specifying a font that the
fontset defines for ASCII.  For instance,

Even if yoy create a fontset as this name:
  (create-fontset-from-fontset-spec
   "-*-dejavu sans mono-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-0-fontset-dejavu")
when you do:
  (set-fontset-font "fontset-dejavu" 'unicode-bmp (font-spec :family "Freemono"))
giving "fontset-dejavu" to :font is the same as giving
  (font-spec :family "Freemono").

> It would probably also be helpful to document the :fontset attribute
> in the manual, if that's the proper way to specify a fontset for the
> the frame's default face.

I don't remember how :fontset attribute works here, sorry. :-(
I tried:
  (set-face-attribute 'default nil :fontset "fontset-dejavu")
but it seems that it has no effect?!?

On the other hand,
  (modify-frame-parameters nil '((font . "fontset-dejavu")))
works.

> > At least, calling set-fontset-font for the fontset of the current frame
> > should work... and worked as far as I rememnber... but I've just found
> > that this does not work with the latest Emacs?!?
> >
> > (set-fontset-font nil 'unicode-bmp "dejavu sans mono")
> > (set-fontset-font nil 'unicode-bmp "Freemono" nil 'append)
> >
> > I'm now checking what is wrong.

That was my misunderstanding, sorry.  I have two versions of freemono
fonts, ttf and otf, and Emacs (or fontconfig) found otf version, but I
was expecting ttf version that has more glyphs.

---
K. Handa
handa <at> gnu.org

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