RE: Emacs geometry

[Drew Adams]

    > First, `default-frame-alist' should be rigorously respected -
    > it seems to be ignored wrt position now.

    Have you checked with the current source?

No. I tested with a version that is now 5 days old. It was 0 days old when I
was asked to test it (for a different frame-positioning bug, fixed by Fran),
and when I reported this bug (to Fran).

    > There should be a default value for top, left = 0,0, as
    > before. Anything else seems weird and unnatural.

    Not one of the applications on Windows I know opens at (0,0).  They
    either let the window manager do the placement or open with the
    geometry they had in their last session.  That means opening at (0,0)
    is rather weird an unnatural.

I just checked several, and I guess you're right & I was wrong. In most
cases I saw, they seemed to open where they were last closed, which means
that wherever the user positioned them last is respected - that's certainly
better than random or wherever the WM thinks is good.

    The cascading behavior there is now might need some love because Emacs
    ends up for too often at the bottom of the screen.  But this looks
    like a bug in the window manager.

I noticed that IE's cascading seems to be like this, which isn't too bad:
Start at 0,0 or the position of the last session, then, alternately a)
slightly down and to the right, and b) flush with the top but to the right.
When the display right edge is reached, then back to 0,0. IOW, it doesn't
keep going down - each frame is either flush with the top or slightly below
the top; continued cascading is only left to right.

    Could you try with a more recent version?

When I can get one, I will. If the default-frame-alist is respected, that
will be a big improvement - Emacs users need some way to control the
position of the first frame, in particular.

Otherwise, if the default behavior is like IE's, that would be good, IMO:
0,0, if no previous session, else same as last position (last session);
cascading right and alternately up and down.