xemacs and c-basic-offset

[Simeon Nifos]

Dear emacs users,

(setq-default c-basic-offset 2)

in my .emacs file works as expected. I am satisfied.

However, the same command in .xemacs/init.el or .xemacs/custom.el does
not do what it does in .emacs. Infact, it does nothing. If I open a
c++ file with xemacs and then press:

META-x (enter) ,
set-variable (enter),
c-basic-offset (enter)
2 (enter)

then this works only for the current buffer. If I open a new file in
the same  buffer it doesn't work for the new file and I need to repeat
the process. Is there anyway to make this work as nicely as it works
in emacs? You see, the only reason I am using xemacs is because it
supports TABS which emacs doesn't support, as far as I know.

Could you please enlight me here?

By the way, I love emacs but I am really frustrated by the fact that
the learning curve is so bad ... (exponential in time). Isn't there
any manual-tutorial, how to set up the essential features a normal guy
needs by his editor... I mean features provided by default in several
IDE environments for c++ at least ...

I have lost days and days to set up some subset of the features I need
googling all over the web and by trial and error ...

Thanks in advance,
SN.