Hardcoded default font is outdated and creates logspam

[mbenkmann]

Every time I start notion I get the log message

2025-07-31 12:18:18 INFO /notion/../fontset.c:121: de_create_font_in_current_locale: Found a font with 12 missing charsets for -*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

This is because de/init.c:de_init() creates a fallback style with a non-configurable fontname obtained from de/font.c:de_default_fontname() which hardcodes the above helvetica font.

Obviously legacy X11 fonts like helvetica are hopelessly outdated and can't be expected to support all charsets.

I'd like to get rid of this annoying message. I see several options:

1. Change the loglevel of the message to DEBUG. I don't think it has a value for ordinary users, especially since they can't change the font in question and will only be sent on a wild goose chase in their style for where they forgot to specify a proper font
2. add an #ifdef HAVE_X11_XFT block to de/font.c:de_default_fontname() with the default "xft:sans-serif:size=12", so that systems with XFT use a more sensible default.
3. make the default font user-configurable in some manner

I'll implement this and submit a PR if you tell me which option you prefer.

[raboof]

I guess '3' would be nicest, but practically speaking I'd be fine with '2'

[mbenkmann]

Any idea where/how the user could configure this? And I guess we still would need 2 in case the user hasn't configured it.

[raboof]

I guess that should be part of the lua-based configuration files, but wiring that up so that it makes it to de/font.c might be a hassle. Indeed we'd probably still need '2'.

[mbenkmann]

Thinking about it a bit more, it doesn't really make sense to make a fallback user configurable. The fallback is for cases where the user configuration is not present or broken. If the user configuration is fine the fallback won't ever be used. So I think 2 is enough just to make sure that Xft-based systems get a proper Xft-fallback.
There is still the question if the fallback for non-Xft systems can/should be something other than this helvetica font. I don't know if there is anything that can be relied upon to support all charsets among the legacy X11 fonts.

[mbenkmann]

Implemented in PR #384