Include Unicode symbols

[cbrnr]

I'm trying to include the copyright symbol © in my .qmd source file. When I insert the symbol in my text editor (VS Code), it does not get rendered at all. I can work around by writing ©, but I'd prefer to use the symbol directly.

On a related note, what if I wanted to use emojis? Those don't work either in the rendered output.

I'm using format: html and engine: knitr in case this is relevant.

[jjallaire]

Note sure what's going on here. I am able to include emjois and the copyright symbol and they both render:

[cbrnr]

Using the same input, I get this output:

[cbrnr]

It is related to the engine. It doesn't work when I select engine: knitr, but it works correctly with engine: jupyter.

[mcanouil]

It is likely related to encoding issue, e.g., something that is not UTF-8.
Consider checking file encoding (status bar) and/or the global encoding setting in VSCode.

[cbrnr]

My guess is that VS Code is saving the file with a non UTF8 encoding (but RStudio always saves w/ UTF8 for qmd/rmd). There is likely some configuration in VS Code that is affecting this behavior.

I would be surprised if it didn't save the file as UTF-8. I've tried some other encodings, but they don't work either (as expected). And the source file shows the symbol and emoji correctly.

I open the exact same source file in VS Code and RStudio. Rendering in VS Code doesn't produce the symbols. Rendering in RStudio works, and switching back to VS Code Preview with the HTML rendered by RStudio quarto actually shows the symbols.

I've tried disabling all extensions but quarto, but no luck.

Any additional ideas I could try?

[cbrnr]

I just removed all user configuration files and extensions (~/Library/Application Support/Code and ~/.vscode), which should give me the default VS Code settings. I installed the quarto extension, but it still didn't work.

[jjallaire]

quarto-cli reads and writes all text files as UTF-8. Pandoc also reads and writes all text files at UTF-8. The problem you are seeing is because some other piece of software is causing those symbols to be saved in a non-UTF8 encoding. What it is or why it is happening I can't say, but I can assure you its not quarto or the quarto vs code extension.

[mcanouil]

At this point,

• From Terminal -> no symbols
• From VSCode -> no symbols
• From RStudio -> symbols

might it be something related to your locale? 🤔

[cbrnr]

Thanks a lot @jjallaire and @mcanouil for your patience! My locale was really the reason why it didn't work! I set LC_ALL="C" to force English output in R, but that apparently also somehow influences the encoding. 🤯 So I guess I need to look for another way to stop getting localized R messages...