Re: cannot understand Elisp manual node Glyphs

[Richard Stallman]

    The current implementation (using a Lisp integer) is simply inadequate
    for Emacs 23, so a solution must be found for it (perhaps using a cons
    (char . face) or a float to represent glyph codes with faces.

Specifying faces thru glyph codes is kludgy and perhaps obsolete.  I
think it calls for a total redesign, perhaps not before Emacs 23.

It was added at a time when there was no other way to specify faces
for buffer text.  It doesn't seem very useful to me now.  So maybe we
should delete it instead of redesigning it.

What are the purposes for which people want to use it now?