Copy and Paste inconsistent for Glyphs dialog

[lemasney]

First discussed in https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/343186?comments=all

In MacOS 10.5 when I use the glyphs dialog in 0.48 to copy and paste a particular glyph in one font such as Arial, it works fine.

When choosing a different font, such as Wingdings, I can not get the actual glyph to paste correctly. Instead of a printer's mark, I get a semicolon.

If I do not choose the same font in the text tool as I have in the glyph tool, the text that is pasted is in the text tool's font. However, even when both the text tool and the glyphs tool are set to the same font, in the case of wingdings, there is no way to get the symbol I see and want in the glyphs dialog to show up properly on the canvas.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

reproduced with Inkscape 0.47+devel r9294 on OS X 10.5.8

Note: AFAIU it is not a clipboard issue (x11 preferences are set to allow correct c&p in Inkscape): the glyphs are incorrect/missing only with Apple's glyph fonts (Wingdings, Webdings{,2,3}). Other glyph fonts like OpenSymbol (from OpenOffice.org) work as expected.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

screen shot glyphs dialog with all available glyphs (Unicode 'unassigned') of the font Webdings on OS X 10.5.8

Font Info:
        PostScript name Webdings
        Full name Webdings
        Family Webdings
        Style Regular
        Kind TrueType
        Language
        Version Version 5.00x
        Location /Library/Fonts/Webdings.ttf
        Unique name Microsoft Webdings
        Copyright © 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
        Trademark Webdings is either a registered trademark or a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
        License You may use this font as permitted by the EULA for the product in which this font is included to display and print content. You may only (i) embed this font in content as permitted by the embedding restrictions included in this font; and (ii) temporarily download this font to a printer or other output device to help print content.
        Enabled Yes
        Duplicate No
        Copy protected No
        Embeddable Yes

[su_v (suv-lp)]

I can access the symbols of e.g. Wingdings by typing normal characters on the keyboard: the attached screenshot shows the same text formatted with 'Bitstream Vera Sans' and 'Wingdings'. However I never see the font's actual symbols in the glyphs dialog (apparently that's different from what the bug reporter describes he sees in the glyphs dialog).

(it's the same issue with the official osx development snapshot from modevia (r9291), so it doesn't seem to be related to my local builds)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

possibly related to bug #165665 “non-Unicode symbol fonts do not work on Windows”?
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/165665>