[OS X Emacs] various Aquamacs questions - init files and fonts

[David Rogoff]

Hi.

I've been using emacs/lemacs/xemacs/etc since 18.57 over 20 years ago, 
but I'm always learning new stuff.  I recently got a Mac and started 
using Aquamacs.  I also decided to dump xemacs and migrate to gnu 23 for 
Linux use, which should make my init file (~/.emacs.d/init.el) work for 
both.

I've seen some weird things in the editor related to fonts and my init file.

First, it's not reading my init file!  Any idea why?  I thought it was 
because I had all my fonts and colors, but it was apparently just 
loading ~/.emacs.desktop which had them from me manually evaluating my 
init file from a previous run.  What other files does Aquamacs load on 
startup for customization?

OK - I just looked at the *Messages* buffer and see this (just including 
files from home directory):

Loading /Users/david/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/Recent Files.el 
(source)...done
Loading  /Users/david/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs 
Emacs/customizations.el (source)...done
Loading /Users/david/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/Preferences.el 
(source)...done
No desktop file.
Loading /Users/david/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs 
Emacs/frame-positions.el (source)...done

Why isn't Aquamacs using files in the home directory or ~/.emacs.d ?    
I want to be able to switch back and forth with vanilla 23, but I don't 
know if it's possible now.

Next, fonts seem really messed up.  Sometimes everything is in the nice, 
fixed-width font that also works on Linux. Other times, all my buffers 
are in different (usually proportional) fonts.   I can't 
increase/decrease font size, either. If I try c-x, c-= or c-x,c-- I get
Wrong type arguement: listp, ((:height 1.2))
Doesn't Aquamacs support text-scale-adjust?

Should I just use the emacs from here: 
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsForMacOS ?   What is Aquamacs 
getting me, other than some Mac keyboard bindings?

Thanks,

  David