Hi Lutz and Albrecht,

[...]

> > then I get a pdf-output without hanging punctuation. I use
> > pdfeTeX, Version 3.14159-1.00b-pretest-20020204-2.1 and
> > cont-en 2002.3.4. Is this a bug in ConTeXt, or did I forget something?

> I have the same problem with the newest ConTeXt, nobody else?

well, I've tried your file with different context versions:
context/2001.07.11 
context/2002.02.24 
context/2002.03.04 
context/2002.04.17 

always the same result. Is this only a problem with the newest context?

This works for me:

\setuppapersize[S4]
\usetypescript [serif,sans,mono] [hanging] [pure]
\definetypeface [modern][rm][serif][computer-modern][default][handling=pure]
\definetypeface [modern][ss][sans][computer-modern][default][handling=pure]
\setupalign[hanging,tolerant]
\starttext
\modern
\input zapf
\stoptext

Hans: the \startcolumns is broken in the newest beta
-- 
Viele Grüße, 

    Patrick Gundlach