[Etoys] Squeak VM status concerning language encodings

[Luke Gorrie]

I'm making an effort today to understand squeak+unicode+fonts. I want
to start really simple: to display a Devanagari unicode character in
Squeak. I'd like to do this programatically to avoid potential
problems with encoding, clipboards, etc.

Here's what I tried:
1. Drag and drop a unicode Devanagari font into Squeak from
http://nepalinux.org/fonts/samanata.ttf)
2. Print a unicode character in a workspace by evaluating: Unicode
value: 16r0913

I'd hoped to see a Devanagari character appear in the workspace but I
only see '$?'.

I also tried this:
  TextMorph new contents: ((Unicode value: 16r0913) asString); openInHand
which also showed as a ? even if I explicitly used the halo option to
select the unicode font.

So I'd really like help with two questions:
1. How can I make it display the Devanagari character in my chosen font?
2. In general should the font selection be automatic -- if I print a
unicode character should Squeak find a font that has the glyph? What's
the algorithm?

More generally I'm wondering whether I need to be worried about
ligature and suchlike. Is this something that Squeak needs to
understand (from hints in the font?) for straight import of text?

Any help welcome :-)
-Luke