I've noticed that in MacOS X cocoa programs in text fields/areas that when a given unicode character is not available in the current font it substitutes it from another font. For instance, I am working on a simple card game for a class project and the editor font I use (Courier) does not have the characters I wish to use, being the 4 suits: ♣, ♦, ♥ & ♠. In a program like TextEdit or the Terminal, it would simply grab the characters from another font file, for example "Apple Symbols," a general substitution font (it's nothing but unicode symbols).

I was wondering if this auto-substitution could be incorporated into future versions of jEdit.

I use Courier as my editor font, so the following symbols are appear as empty blocks to me: ₢ ₤ ₥ ₦ ₧ ₨ ₩ ₪ ₫ ₭ ₮ ₯ ℀ ℁ ℂ ℃ ℄ ℅ ℆ ℇ ℈ ℉ ℊ ℋ ℌ ℍ ℎ ℏ ∀ ∃ ∅ ∇ ∉ ∰ ⊆ ⊕ ⋀ ⊾ ⑀ ⑁ ⑂ ⑃ ⑄ ⑅ ⑆ ⑇ ⑈ ⑉ ⑊ ╒ ═ ═ ╗ ☀ ☁ ☂ ☃ ☄ ☆ ☎ ☠ ☣ ☤ ☭ ☮ ☹ ☺ ☥ ☦ ☧ ☨ ☩ ☪ ☫ ☬ ☯ ☸ ☿ ♀ ♁ ♂ ♃ ♄ ♅ ♆ ♇ ♈ ♉ ♊ ♋ ♌ ♍ ♎ ♏ ♐ ♑ ♒ ♓ ♔ ♛ ♖ ♝ ♘ ♟ ♚ ♜ ♞ ♠ ♡ ♢ ♣ ⚀ ⚁ ⚂ ⚃ ⚄ ⚅ ⚆ ⚇ ⚈ ⚉ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯ ♲ ♳ ♴ ♵ ♶ ♷ ♸ ♹ (This is maybe less than ¼ of the symbols font I mentioned earlier).

I do use a handful of these symbols on a regular basis in some of the documents I work on, believe it or not.