# Syntax: Escape hatch for unicode haters

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/syntax-escape-hatch-for-unicode-haters/108363>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Tags:** syntax, unicode\
**Created:** [January 4, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/syntax-escape-hatch-for-unicode-haters/108363 "2024-01-04T23:55:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 123

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**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/syntax-escape-hatch-for-unicode-haters/108363/123 "2024-01-15T14:56:08Z")

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> [@foobar\_lv2](#):
>
> - Can we reasonably address the issues of unicode-in-source haters? By helping these people like me with their needs, not by depriving others of the things they love in julia? (however misguided I personally might think `α` in code is, that would be a very different discussion, and that would be strictly julia 2.0)

For the reasons @mbauman and I noted above, I suspect that adding a huge number of new keywords like `\\alpha` to the Julia parser seems unlikely to happen, though of course someone can always propose a pull request.

A package (e.g. `TextUniVars.jl`) that provides e.g. `uvar"\alpha\hat"` variable names can happen _now_, as I noted in my very first response on this thread. Other possibilities include someone writing a new editor plugin that displays `α` as `{\alpha}` or something, i.e which transparently translates under the hood. Both of these things can be done by any sufficiently motivated person without any changes to Julia itself.

For occasional replies to discourse posts with Unicode identifiers, if you’re not willing to copy-paste a few times a year(?), I suppose you could always include `using TextUniVars` in your reply.

> [@foobar\_lv2](#):
>
> - Should we maybe do something about discouraging the prevalence of non-ascii unicode in the general style guides? If so, we should also address their prevalence in Base / stdlib – that must be the paragon of julia coding style.

I suggested some possible actionable items here: [Warning against Unicode confusables - #36 by stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/warning-against-unicode-confusables/108734/36) … of course, people can propose whatever PRs to the style guide or to Julia base that they wish, as long as they can accept that the answer might be “no”.

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