What is the proper way to set the default font these days?

[Deniz Dogan]

Hi

Since I started using Emacs 23, I've been having some problems with
Emacs (the windowed UI, is this called Emacs-GTK mayhap?) in
combination with the XMonad window manager.  To put it short, there is
some problem with Emacs' timing between setting the font and telling
the window manager how big the frame is (or maybe the other way
around, I don't know X).

I can't explain it any better than with a screen shot:
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7521/200906061652201280x800s.png

In earlier versions of Emacs 23, I managed to solve the problem by
setting the font in .Xdefaults, but now not even that works.  I am not
sure which revision this was "broken" in and to be honest, I just want
to know how I can work around it.

Any help is appreciated.

-- 
Deniz Dogan