ActiveRichTextField and Smileys (Smilies) on BlackBerry

Question

Browsing the JavaDoc for the Blackberry, I see one reference to smileys, under ActiveRichTextField.getText()

Retrieves text string from this field. If smileys exist in this field, this method first "decodes" them, and then returns the result.

I am wondering how I can enable this "smileys" behavior, to get the ActiveRichTextField to render a smiley icon.

A similar question went unanswered on the blackberry support forum: http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Java-Development/Images-in-TextField-RichTextField-or-ActiveRichTextField/m-p/372446

EDIT 14-Sept-2010: And there is a very similar SO question, where the conclusion is to write your own field: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2754668/blackberry-how-can-i-show-a-label-with-emoticons