Subject: 23.2; negative "left" parameter of initial-frame-alist interpreted incorrectly

From: Sean McAfee <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:01:40 -0500

When I start emacs after replacing the contents of my .emacs file with
just the single line:

(setq initial-frame-alist (append '((top . 0) (left . -100))
initial-frame-alist))

...then the initial frame appears with its left edge 100 pixels to the
left of the left edge of the screen--that is, hanging off of the edge of
the screen.  Prior to my recent upgrade from Emacs 22, this same snippet
cause my initial frame to correctly be placed with its right edge 100
pixels to the left of the right edge of the screen.

In GNU Emacs 23.2.1 (i386-apple-darwin9.8.0, NS apple-appkit-949.54)
 of 2010-11-14 on sean-mcafees-macbook-pro.local
Windowing system distributor `Apple', version 10.3.949
configured using `configure  '--prefix=/opt/local' '--with-ns'
'--without-x' '--without-dbus' 'CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.0' 'CFLAGS=-O2 -arch
i386' 'LDFLAGS=-L/opt/local/lib -arch i386'
'CPPFLAGS=-I/opt/local/include''

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: Emacs-Lisp

Minor modes in effect:
  desktop-save-mode: t
  iswitchb-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
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
t SPC i s , SPC p a e r <backspace> <backspace> <backspace>
<backspace> [ a <backspace> <backspace> p a r <backspace>
<backspace> <backspace> h a n g i n g SPC o f f SPC
t h e SPC l e t <backspace> <backspace> <backspace>
<backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace>
<backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> SPC
o f f SPC t h e SPC l e f t SPC s i d e SPC o f SPC
t h e SPC s c r e e n C-n C-p M-q M-> C-/ C-f C-/ M->
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-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p
C-p 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-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-l 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-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-p C-p C-p
C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p C-l 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-f C-f C-f C-f C-f M-d e d g e M-q
C-a C-c C-c y e s <return> M-s-x M-s-p C-x o C-u C-x
C-o C-p C-n <s-left> <s-left> <s-left> M-x r e p o
r t - e m a c s <tab> <return>

Recent messages:
Mark set
Auto-saving...done
Auto-saving...done
Mark set
Undo!
Redo!
Mark set
Sending...
Sending via mail...
Sending...done

Load-path shadows:
~/emacs/misc hides
/opt/local/var/macports/software/emacs-app/23.2_1/Applications/MacPorts/Emacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/misc
~/emacs/japanese hides
/opt/local/var/macports/software/emacs-app/23.2_1/Applications/MacPorts/Emacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/language/japanese
~/emacs/emms-3.0/tq hides
/opt/local/var/macports/software/emacs-app/23.2_1/Applications/MacPorts/Emacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/emacs-lisp/tq

Features:
(browse-url mailalias mailclient gnus-msg gnus-art mm-uu mml2015
epg-config mm-view smime dig gnus-sum nnoo gnus-group gnus-undo nnmail
mail-source format-spec gnus-start gnus-spec gnus-int gnus-range
gnus-win gnus gnus-ems newcomment shadow sort mail-extr message
ecomplete rfc822 mml mml-sec password-cache mm-decode mm-bodies
mm-encode mailcap mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045 qp ietf-drums
mailabbrev nnheader gnus-util netrc time-date mm-util mail-prsvr
gmm-utils mailheader canlock sha1 hex-util hashcash mail-utils emacsbug
help-mode view vc-git zenburn color-theme wid-edit sendmail reporter
term disp-table ehelp electric ring advice help-fns advice-preload
emms-cache emms-info-ogginfo emms-info-mp3info emms-playlist-mode
edmacro kmacro emms-player-mplayer emms-source-playlist emms-source-file
locate dired regexp-opt emms-playing-time emms-info later-do
emms-player-mpg321-remote emms-player-simple emms-setup emms emms-compat
desktop server iswitchb cl cl-19 tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks
lisp-float-type mwheel ns-win easymenu tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe
lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar
mldrag mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham
georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao
korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic
indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple
abbrev loaddefs button minibuffer faces cus-face files text-properties
overlay md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget
hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process ns multi-tty
emacs)