Why does Emacs ignore my X resources (my .Xdefaults file)?

• Try compiling Emacs with the XBACKWARDS macro defined.There is a bug in some implementations of XGetDefault, which do not correspond to the documentation or the header files.
• Make sure you are either using the class name of `Emacs' (oops, apparently this is buggy in Emacs 18.58!) or the correct instance name. The instance name is normally the same as the name of the file Emacs is in (ie., the last part of argv[0]), but this can be overridden by -rn command line option or the WM_RES_NAME environment variable. WARNING: Reports say using the class name fails in Emacs 18.58. WARNING: The advice the man page gives to use `emacs' is often wrong. WARNING: Older versions of Emacs got the class name wrong.
• Emacs currently ignores the -xrm command line argument.
• Emacs does not yet handle X11R5 screen-specific resources.
• Emacs has a bug where it ignores color specifications if running on a 1-bit display (ie. a non-color display).
• I don't think Emacs will use either of the application-specific resource files. Thus these environment variables don't affect it: XAPPLRESDIR, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, XFILESEARCHPATH. {Correct?}