bug#2504: 23.0.90; new-frame => "no font backend available."

Please write in English if possible, because the Emacs maintainers
usually do not have translators to read other languages for them.

Your bug report will be posted to the [email protected] mailing list.

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

I think MacOS Emacs isn't very resilient to customizations for other
platforms that should be ignored.  For example, my

  default-frame-alist

is 

  ((menu-bar-lines . 1) (font-backend . "xft") (font . "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono-10.5") (tool-bar-lines . 0))

But `M-x new-frame' causes emacs to report "no font backend available"
without opening a new window.

BTW, reporting steps to reproduce bugs with emacs -Q seems to be
counterproductive on MacOS, because if I invoke the underlying
executable instead of the .app bundle, several things don't work
properly... and AFAIK there's no way to pass -Q to the .app bundle.

If Emacs crashed, and you have the Emacs process in the gdb debugger,
please include the output from the following gdb commands:
    `bt full' and `xbacktrace'.
If you would like to further debug the crash, please read the file
/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/Resources/etc/DEBUG for instructions.


In GNU Emacs 23.0.90.1 (i386-apple-darwin9.6.0, NS apple-appkit-949.43)
 of 2009-02-18 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: Summary

Minor modes in effect:
  show-paren-mode: t
  server-mode: t
  global-auto-revert-mode: t
  delete-selection-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:
<help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> M-x g n u s <backspace> 
<backspace> <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> s e 
t - d e f a <tab> <return> M o n a c o - 1 3 <return> 
M-x g n u s <return> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> y <down-mouse-1> 
<mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> 
M-x s h e <backspace> <backspace> <backspace> C-g <down-mouse-1> 
<mouse-1> L l L l C-p C-p C-p C-n C-n <return> <return> 
M-x n e w - f r a <tab> <return> M-x M-p <return> C-p 
C-p C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-n C-p C-p C-p C-p C-p M-x 
s e t - v a r <tab> <return> d e b u g - o n - e r 
<tab> <return> t <return> <return> C-n C-n C-n C-n 
C-n C-n M-x M-p M-p <return> 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-n C-n C-n C-n M-x M-p 
M-p <return> M-p <return> n i l <return> M-x e <backspace> 
r e p o r t - e m a <tab> C-g C-g M-x M-p C-g M-x r 
e p o r t - e m a <tab> <return>

Recent messages:
nnimap: Updating info for INBOX...done
nnimap: Setting marks in INBOX...done
Fetching headers for INBOX...
nnimap: Retrieving headers...done
Fetching headers for INBOX...done
Generating summary...done
x-create-frame-with-faces: No font backend available [2 times]
Fill column set to 86 (was 70)
x-create-frame-with-faces: No font backend available
Auto-saving...done
Quit [3 times]
-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com