some font issues

["Eckhart Guthöhrlein" <eckhart_guthoehrlein@public.uni-hamburg.de>]

I finally succeeded in my attempts to achieve several things at the same time:
a) direct input of umlauts in my input file
b) use of ae fonts
c) hanging punctuation
d) ams symbols

I am not sure that I have done it as it is intended, and I would like to 
point out the difficulties I had on my way, perhaps this may help in the 
further development of the font interface (or to reveal my lack of 
understanding concerning fonts). So here is my file which finally works:

\enableregime[windows]
\usetypescript[serif,sans,mono][hanging][pure]
\setupalign [hanging]
\definetypeface [modern] [rm] [serif] [computer-modern] [default] 
[handling=pure,encoding=ec]
\definetypeface [modern] [mm] [math]  [computer-modern] [computer-modern] 
[handling=pure,encoding=ec]
\setupbodyfont[ams,modern]
\starttext
    äüöÄÜÖß$\Delta$                  % to see if umlauts work
    \startcolumns[n=2]               % does it hang?
       \dorecurse{3}{\input tufte}
    \stopcolumns
\stoptext

1) If I omit 'encoding=ec': no problems at all. The second \definetypeface 
is not necessary in this case. But I don't want to hyphenate each words 
with umlauts manually, so...

2) With encoding=ec, I got ae. But I had to add the second \definetypeface 
because math symbols got spoiled, e.g. \Delta gave me an apostroph, 
\overbar resulted into striked out letters etc. It took me quite some time 
to spot the crucial point: replacing [default] by [computer-modern].

3) \setupbodyfont[modern,ams] (reversed order) leads to spoiled umlauts and 
math symbols. The math symbols can be restored by the second 
\definetypeface. But the umlauts stay strange (a short horizontal line is 
placed approximately .5ex below the top of the letter).

I hope these descriptions are comprehendable. I'm using the latest beta 
(downloaded today). Two reasons for my posting:
1) Isn't there a simpler way to get there?
2) If there isn't, and since fonts (and math) are currently evolving: 
shouldn't there be one? In particular, at least for the standard supported 
fonts, a single command to activate hanging punctuation, regardless of font 
and encoding, so it could be used together with \setupbodyfont[aer]? For a 
normal user like me, relatively new to context, it was not easy to find the 
solution above. (But it is a nice feeling if it finally works.)

-- 
Eckhart