# Deciphering unicode chars

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/deciphering-unicode-chars/74321>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** unicode\
**Created:** [January 10, 2022, 3:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/deciphering-unicode-chars/74321 "2022-01-10T03:16:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jonoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@jonoke](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jonoke)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 3:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/deciphering-unicode-chars/74321/1 "2022-01-10T03:16:42Z")

</div>

In

[[https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/master/src/julia-parser.scm#L23](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/master/src/julia-parser.scm#L23)]

there are definitions that group various characters. In the browser, and when I copy that line to my editor, most of the characters are displayed as boxes.

`(define prec-power (add-dots '(^ ↑ ↓ ⇵ ⟰ ⟱ ⤈ ⤉ ⤊ ⤋ ⤒ ⤓ ⥉ ⥌ ⥍ ⥏ ⥑ ⥔ ⥕ ⥘ ⥙ ⥜ ⥝ ⥠ ⥡ ⥣ ⥥ ⥮ ⥯ ￪ ￬)))`

oh … I see they are displaying better on here, but there are still a couple of boxes.

is there someway to a find out what those boxes are, and to find out if any of those characters have REPL "" names?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jzr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb9ed0/32.png) [@jzr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jzr)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 3:21am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/deciphering-unicode-chars/74321/2 "2022-01-10T03:21:57Z")

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The boxes are because your editor doesn’t have a font to display them. You can try [JuliaMono](https://juliamono.netlify.app/) font.

In the repl you can do `?⤈`

```julia
help?> ⤈
"⤈" can be typed by \downarrowbarred<tab>

search:

  No documentation found.

  Binding ⤈ does not exist.

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cormullion](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cormullion/32/49131_2.png) [@cormullion](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cormullion)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 10:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/deciphering-unicode-chars/74321/3 "2022-01-10T10:20:16Z")

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As you venture out into the less frequently visited areas of Unicode, the environment you’re using will determine how the characters are rendered. The number of empty boxes (aka “[notdefs](https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/108297/what-is-the-technical-term-for-a-replacement-character-if-a-font-does-not-have-a/108300#108300)”) that you’ll see depends on how many fonts you’ve installed, and your operating system, among other things.

On Discourse, the theme you’re using (as set in your Preferences) determines which font you’re likely to see. If you use the Dark or Light themes, you’ll probably be served JuliaMono - your post looks like this to me (no boxes):

 ![Screenshot 2022-01-10 at 09.27.34](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/c/1/c11de470d1d191986f170d15ecd1faf69afbbc81.png)

With the other Discourse themes, you’re likely to get one of:

```css
Consolas, Menlo, Monaco, "Lucida Console", "Liberation Mono", 
"DejaVu Sans Mono", "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono", "Courier New"

```

and it looks like this in my browser:

 ![Screenshot 2022-01-10 at 09.28.49](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/1/c/1c4ccda1bad285e72a8e614ca2a083ad2c6560cd.png)

On my Mac, those themes display using mostly Menlo (which is Apple’s hacked version of DejaVu which they used from 2009 to 2015). On other OSs there’s a good chance you’ll see Consolas. But other fonts will be used if necessary.