Asterisk in math

[gromadan]

There is some inconsistency in typesetting asterisk in math when using alternative fonts. Consider the following:

%\input ctimes
%\fontfam[times]
$A*, A^*$   \par
$A\ast, A^\ast$
\bye

In plainTeX, both rows are the same also if you use other fonts (uncommenting the first line for instance). The same holds also for OpTeX if you use the default fonts. But if you uncomment the second line, then the * probably just prints the unicode character * (as if it was outside math mode) instead of the the big asterisk like \ast.