RE: can't set both mode-line color and default frame font?

[Drew Adams]

> > A user might have the same `custom-file' on different platforms, and
> > different X resources for various platforms would then modulate the
> > behavior, if they took precedence over the `custom-file' settings.
> > Otherwise, to get the same effect, the user would need different
> > `custom-file's.
>
> Note that the ordering only matters when there are settings to
> the same data in both places.  The user is free to choose whether
> to place settings in custom-file, so if she wants to use Xresources,
> she can simply refrain from putting the settings on custom-file.

Yes, the question is how to handle a conflict between competing
customization sources for some user option/face.

What I was alluding to was having a stock `custom-file' that specifies the
preferences you want in most cases, and have a few X-resource settings that
override some of those `custom-file' settings on some platform.

You would still want the rest of the `custom-file' to be used on that
platform, and you would still want the `custom-file' to be used, even for
those overridden preferences, on other platforms (where they are not
overridden).