Xwindows and Emacs

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

Long ago, I was a RedHat user. When I moved to Debian, I kept a copy
of a file, .Xresources, that made Emacs display under X in a way that
I liked.  Now in trying to use Etch, I discover that the file doesn't
work quite the way I want under xserver-xorg. I want to tweek it, but
can't find docs that address my questions in a way that I recognize. I
think my main issue is with the line:

emacs*font: fixed

This is used in a lot of X config files that are published on the web,
but I can't find any information about what its actually intended to do.
For me, it changes the size of the font that is used to display the text
being editted. Without this line the size is bigish, with this line it 
is smaller by two or three points. In Etch, with this line, the text is
also in condensed type, that is the letters are scrunched together so as
to fit more letters in a given space. 

So, there appear to be default font selections set up somewhere and this
line switches among them. Where are these defaults set up? In both xorg
and in xfree? Where can I find an explanation of the value 'fixed' in
this context? What other values are accepted in this line? What do the
other values do? Etc.? 

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net