3 ms·

They’re very easy to type in Julia’s repl, or any text editor with Julia support. You just type \mu and then hit the tab button and you get μ. I actually switc

They’re very easy to type in Julia’s repl, or any text editor with Julia support. You just type \mu and then hit the tab button and you get μ. I actually switch over to my Julia REPL all the time when I’m emailing someone and want to type a greek character.

dnautics 5y ago
> with Julia support. So you can see how this becomes a bit of a barrier to entry.
- eigenspace 5y ago
  I'm not sure I'd want to do any serious coding in an editor that doesn't have the most basic support for the language I'm using, but to each their own I guess. For new users, if they're not used to writing unicode characters and don't have an editor with nice support, then they don't have to write them. The julia community has a pretty strong convention of giving both unicode and ascii versions of almost all functions. Some packages don't have this convention, but I'm not aware of any big important ones that don't follow it.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Anyone that doesn't use a language aware editor is making themselves a disservice.
  - dnautics 5y ago
    that's not really acceptable. I'm a big julia fanboy, have been since 0.4 (proof in bio) but dismissing real pain felt by newcomers is kind of bad for the ecosystem.
    - manwe150 5y ago
      What editor do you use, if I may ask, and have you asked them to add unicode support? Part of the goal in permitting unicode variable names is that more and more niche editors might be forced to become fluent in languages other than english, benefits everyone (and might be a bit overdue at this point). I use vim, and have a completions plugin (part of julia-vim mode), so that I can write \mu<tab> for any unicode name, which makes it as easy to type as "mu", but easier for me to read (as it matches my textbook expectation of the formula).
      - dnautics 5y ago
        It's not a display issue. Do I want to type ctrl-u <whatever hex> or copy-paste if I want to write some code that calls a function when I'm playing around with a new library? Well those are the two strategies I've used with experience... But some person coming new to Julia will grab some package, and then see some function call and get deer in the headlights "how the hell do i do this". And LaTeX codes are not always obvious. For example it's \triangleleft but \leftarrow
fnord77 5y ago
that's two extra strokes than just "mu"

dnautics 5y ago

> with Julia support. So you can see how this becomes a bit of a barrier to entry.

eigenspace 5y ago
I'm not sure I'd want to do any serious coding in an editor that doesn't have the most basic support for the language I'm using, but to each their own I guess. For new users, if they're not used to writing unicode characters and don't have an editor with nice support, then they don't have to write them. The julia community has a pretty strong convention of giving both unicode and ascii versions of almost all functions. Some packages don't have this convention, but I'm not aware of any big important ones that don't follow it.
pjmlp 5y ago
Anyone that doesn't use a language aware editor is making themselves a disservice.
- dnautics 5y ago
  that's not really acceptable. I'm a big julia fanboy, have been since 0.4 (proof in bio) but dismissing real pain felt by newcomers is kind of bad for the ecosystem.
  - manwe150 5y ago
    What editor do you use, if I may ask, and have you asked them to add unicode support? Part of the goal in permitting unicode variable names is that more and more niche editors might be forced to become fluent in languages other than english, benefits everyone (and might be a bit overdue at this point). I use vim, and have a completions plugin (part of julia-vim mode), so that I can write \mu<tab> for any unicode name, which makes it as easy to type as "mu", but easier for me to read (as it matches my textbook expectation of the formula).
    - dnautics 5y ago
      It's not a display issue. Do I want to type ctrl-u <whatever hex> or copy-paste if I want to write some code that calls a function when I'm playing around with a new library? Well those are the two strategies I've used with experience... But some person coming new to Julia will grab some package, and then see some function call and get deer in the headlights "how the hell do i do this". And LaTeX codes are not always obvious. For example it's \triangleleft but \leftarrow

fnord77 5y ago

that's two extra strokes than just "mu"