# 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:** 7

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Dan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dan/32/42581_2.png) [@Dan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Dan)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2024, 12:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/syntax-escape-hatch-for-unicode-haters/108363/7 "2024-01-05T12:46:31Z")

</div>

Based on the previous macro, this version might have more compassion towards source-code reader:

```julia
using REPL
macro lvar_str(s::AbstractString)
    if !haskey(REPL.REPLCompletions.latex_symbols, "\\"*s) 
        throw(ArgumentError("expecting relevant latex"))
    end
    new_s = REPL.REPLCompletions.latex_symbols["\\"*s]
    sym = Meta.parse(unescape_string(new_s))
    sym isa Symbol || throw(ArgumentError("expecting a single symbol"))
    return esc(sym)
end

```

```julia
julia> lvar"mu"
3

julia> lvar"pi"
π = 3.1415926535897...

```

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