# Unicode mac windows portability

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/unicode-mac-windows-portability/106155>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** unicode\
**Created:** [November 13, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/unicode-mac-windows-portability/106155 "2023-11-13T15:45:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gravlax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gravlax](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Gravlax)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2023, 3:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/unicode-mac-windows-portability/106155/1 "2023-11-13T15:45:56Z")

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Hi all,  
I just had an issue during one of my lectures. I provided the students a notebook with pre-filled information. The notebook was edited on a mac using VScode jupyter editor.  
One variable name was called `χ̇` but when students opened the notebook (on Windows) the variable name was splat into 2 adjacent characters `χ` and `.` which lead to obvious problems.  
So my question is: has anyone else had this problem? And is there any cure besides avoiding unicode (which student enjoy!)?  
Thanks!

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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:** [November 13, 2023, 4:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/unicode-mac-windows-portability/106155/2 "2023-11-13T16:13:12Z")

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> [@Gravlax](#):
>
> So my question is: has anyone else had this problem? And is there any cure besides avoiding unicode (which student enjoy!)?

It’s probably a font issue — your Windows font has worse Unicode coverage and/or worse fallback support. Try [https://juliamono.netlify.app/](https://juliamono.netlify.app/)

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**Author:** ![Gravlax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Gravlax](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Gravlax)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 8:04am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/unicode-mac-windows-portability/106155/3 "2023-11-14T08:04:36Z")

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thanks for the answer, this font looks great!  
Unfortunately I guess that all students would also need to install the font on their own computer (or worse, the computer of the computer room). This is yet another layer of complexity, so I guess I’ll just avoid unicode with students for the time being.