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Julia has the best REPL for this. You can \<type><tab> to type unicode symbol and emoji. Better yet, you can reverse look up how to type a thing: help?> χ²ᵢ

• dnautics 5y ago
  Yeah. Now go edit your code.
  • leephillips 5y ago
    I can edit it in Vim with no problem.
    • dnautics 5y ago
      Sure, because you have a julia plugin. Not every casual user trying out the language will bother, or want to bother installing someone else's plugin. They'll just hit a function call they need to make with a Unicode character, go WTF man, and give up.
      • leephillips 5y ago
        I don’t have a Julia plugin. I don’t even understand what you think the problem is.
      • bmn__ 5y ago
        > They'll just hit a function call they need to make with a Unicode character This is optional, the language adapts to the capability of the user. He can write ∑ or sum for a function, µ or mu for an identifier. https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/functions/ https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/functions/ You get people riled up in this thread with your false assumption, next time simply ask questions.
        • dnautics 5y ago
          that's for stuff in the stdlib. You can't control library writers, and julia does not force a function identifier that is mapped to unicode to have a "non-unicode equivalent", though, that might be interesting.
          • DNF2 5y ago
            If libraries use unicode in their internals, it doesn't affect you or me. And I have yet to see in the wild any examples of unicode identifiers that are required for use. The closest thing i can think of is the composition operator in Base, though it has a somewhat awkward ascii equivalent. Do you have any example? As far as I know this is strongly discouraged in the community.
    • e12e 5y ago
      You can easily search for omega and lambda via vim slash(/) search command?
      • leephillips 5y ago
        Yes, just like searching for any other character.
        • e12e 5y ago
          How do you type it?
          • leephillips 5y ago
            On my keyboard, if I’m in Vim and want to search for λ, I type /λ. I type the λ with <right-CTRL>l.
            • e12e 5y ago
              Any special setup for that? I'd be hard pressed to touch type capital/lowercase sigma, ro, pi and quite a few others, I think. I fully think this is a problem with archaic input - but that doesn't mean it would not be inconvenient when navigating through a code base :/
              • leephillips 5y ago
                I just use what X-Windows supplies for customizing the keyboard. The way to tell the machine what modifier keys to use for what is with xmodmap. My .Xmodmap file contains: clear control clear mod2 clear mod4 keycode 134 = dead_greek dead_greek dead_greek dead_greek keycode 108 = Multi_key remove Lock = Caps_Lock keycode 66 = Control_L add control = Control_L But you have to figure out the keycodes that your keyboard is sending to make it work for your particular machine. The program xev is good for this. This mapping also makes the capslock key into another control key, which is good if you use Vim. The Greek letters will be on keys that make sense, and the other Unicode characters are pretty rational too: to make é, type <mod>'e. You can make any key combination produce anything, even long strings, by putting the mappings in the Compose file. My Compose file is in /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8. I have snippets in there, such as my email address. This way the mappings work anywhere, not just in a particular editor.
  • craftinator 5y ago
    I actually agree with this sentiment, using non-keyboard utf8 characters in code is just asking for massive problems down the line. A fun party trick perhaps, but such a bad idea for anything that isn't a hobby Project.
    • dnautics 5y ago
      I disagree, in that it's the opposite. You might want to put some internal calls in Unicode as a way to gatekeep contributors and users to people who are serious about using Julia. But if you think your project could be used by casual explorers, your public API better not have Unicode calls, or, at least provide sensible non-unicode aliases for unicode calls.
• Karrot_Kream 5y ago
  Oh dang I didn't know this. Thanks, TIL!