I am using emacs-21.2.2 under Slackware 9.0 Linux. Although it is called
emacs (by Slackware), it looks like xemacs. Anyway, I am using syntacs
coloring for programming which causes the comments and some of the other
keywords to be almost invisible agaist the default gray background of emacs.
I have tried to change the background colore (like in the old days using a
..emacs file) to no avail. There was a post from Chris asking about changing
the color of the cursor with the lisp code he used to change it. His code
is:
(setq default-frame-alist
   '(
         (cursor-color     . "greenyellow")
         (cursor-type      . box)
     )
)
which worked fine. So I added a line under the cursor to change the
background color: (background-color    ."red") and restarted the emacs. The
color was red for a fraction of a second before it changed back to the old
gray. Where is this color set? By the way I have also tried to change the
color from the menu:    Edit --> Text Properties --> Background Color -->
and set it but the actual color of the background does not change.

I appreciate any help fixing this problem.

Thanks,
Bijan.

On Fri, 04 Jul 2003 03:12:28 +0000, "Bijan" <bijanv@sbcglobalNoSpam.net>
scribbled:

> I am using emacs-21.2.2 under Slackware 9.0 Linux. Although it is called
> emacs (by Slackware), it looks like xemacs. Anyway, I am using syntacs

Slackware's e package set installs GNU Emacs. There used to be an
xemacs package in extra/, but I think it's gone as of 8.1.

> coloring for programming which causes the comments and some of the other
> keywords to be almost invisible agaist the default gray background of emacs.
> I have tried to change the background colore (like in the old days using a
> .emacs file) to no avail. There was a post from Chris asking about changing

Try setq-default:
(setq-default default-frame-alist
	      '(
		(cursor-color     . "greenyellow")
		(cursor-type      . box)
		(background-color    ."red")
		)
	      )

Works for me under slackware-current (which has 21.3).

-- 
I describe false symptoms to my doctor to keep him on his toes.