font selection confusion

[Miles Bader <miles.bader@necel.com>]

GNU Emacs 23.0.91.8 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.14.7) of 2009-03-04 on dhlpc061

I'm kind of confused how emacs chooses alternative fonts to display
funny characters.

For instance, try this:

  (1) Start "HOME=/tmp emacs -Q"

  (2) Insert this string in *scratch*:  ❦⋮
      (those two characters are \u2766, "FLORAL HEART", and \u22ee,
      "VERTICAL ELLIPSIS")

  (3) On my system, which is debian unstable, the default font used is
      "Dejuavu Sans Mono"; using that font, the "FLORAL HEART" can be
      displayed using the default font, and "VERTICAL ELLIPSIS" is
      displayed using a different font,
      "-mutt-clearlyu-medium-r-normal--17-120-100-100-p-123-iso10646-1"

  (4) Now, I use the "Options > Set Default Font" menu to change the
      default font to "Liberation Mono" (this is a commonly installed
      free font, but any font with poor coverage of funny characters
      will seems to give the same result...).

  (5) Liberation Mono does not have either of those characters, but what
      happens is:  the "FLORAL HEART" character is now displayed as an
      empty box, but the "VERTICAL ELLIPSIS" character continues to be
      displayed using the "mutt-clearlyu" font.

Shouldn't emacs continue to use Dejavu Sans Mono to display "FLORAL
HEART", given that the font clearly contains it, and emacs clearly knows
(well, knew) that fact?
  
Thanks,

-Miles

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