[Freefont-bugs] ligatures

[Steve White]

Hi, all,

I closed bug report
   bug #16253: Problems with Latin ligatures
The funny 'st' ligature isn't showing up any more, in FreeMono or
anywhere else, since the application of the Debian patches, which
include the attached patch.

However, I don't understand a couple of things about ligatures.

1) What applications use the ligatures?  I tried OpenOffice and Kword.
 Nothing.  Also no controls for ligatures that I could see.
Now, I remember that long ago MS Word didn't do ligatures, and this
was given as the reason to use proper page layout programs instead,
for professional printing.

2) In the TrueType fonts, I don't see how the ligatures are associated
with a string, such as 'ffi'.

3) What is the intent of the distinction between discretionary vs
mandatory ligatures?

Is it that some scripts are unreadable without ligatures?

Myself, I think the 'ffi' etc ligatures are important to good
typesetting, because otherwise letters collide.  On the other hand one
almost never sees the conjoined 'st' ligature.  Can that distinction
be made in the font as well?

Any info will be appreciated!