# Trouble with Unicode **URL:** \ **Category:** Help!\ **Created:** [September 21, 2021, 11:19am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465 "2021-09-21T11:19:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rvjansen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/rvjansen/32/3727_2.png) [@rvjansen](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/rvjansen)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 11:19am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/1 "2021-09-21T11:19:34Z")
I’m using: SWI-Prolog version 8.2.4 I want the code to: work But what I’m getting is: lots of errors: Operator Expected My code looks like this: ```prolog 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9818360-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',capaç). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E982BBE0-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',competent). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9844280-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',entitat). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9857B00-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',alenar). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E986DA90-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',espirar). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9881310-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',respirar). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9892480-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',dC). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98A5D00-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696','DC'). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98BBC90-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',impossibilitat). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98D9150-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',incapaç). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98EA2C0-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',abstracció). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9907780-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',abaxial). ``` This is from a mothballed dictionary project that I decided to un-mothball. Due to horrible install problems I migrated from M1 Mac to Ubuntu 20.04; I installed from the recommended SWI repo. This (very large now, 808M) file suddenly spews errors. I used this, if I remember well, in the SWI Prolog 5 and 6 era. It was fine then, on the Mac. I do a qcompile of it, which speeds up things immeasurable. While doing this, lots and lots and lots of errors show up (one example only): ```prolog ERROR: /home/rvjansen/papiamento/src/facts.pl:6285725:81: Syntax error: Operator expected ``` Looking at those lines with awk, the conclusion presents itself as Unicode characters not being supported (anymore) as parts of an atom. Can anybody help? best regards, René Jansen. ---
**Author:** ![Boris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/boris/32/7486_2.png) [@Boris](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Boris)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 11:32am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/3 "2021-09-21T11:32:26Z")
Maybe there are problems with the encoding? Are the files you have in UTF-8? Can you actually just get this one line that has the error you show, put it in a file on its own, and reproduce the error? That would make it easier to troubleshoot. Because Unicode source is definitely fully supported. If I just copy the snippet as you showed above and paste it into a file, it loads (compiles) without any issues. ---
**Author:** ![rvjansen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/rvjansen/32/3727_2.png) [@rvjansen](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/rvjansen)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 11:43am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/4 "2021-09-21T11:43:37Z")
well, that was it. But to minimalise it even more: ```prolog 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98D9150-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696',incapaç). ``` and look at that last word. ---
**Author:** ![Boris](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/boris/32/7486_2.png) [@Boris](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/Boris)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 11:47am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/5 "2021-09-21T11:47:06Z")
It works for me when I copy-paste to a file. Here is what I see with `listing`: ```prolog 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9818360-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', capaç). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E982BBE0-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', competent). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9844280-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', entitat). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9857B00-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', alenar). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E986DA90-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', espirar). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9881310-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', respirar). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9892480-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', dC). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98A5D00-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', 'DC'). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98BBC90-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', impossibilitat). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98D9150-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', incapaç). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E98EA2C0-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', abstracció). 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4DB3-8B40-C7813D3900DC'('E9907780-2303-11E3-ACBE-E0F847277696', abaxial). ``` I now copied your snippet, pasted it to a file, saved this file, then loaded it and used `listing`, then copied the output back in here. Can you check the encoding somehow? EDIT: if I just copy-paste `incapaç` to a file called `bar`, I see: ```prolog $ cat bar incapaç $ hexdump bar 0000000 69 6e 63 61 70 61 c3 a7 0a 0000009 ``` The `ç` character is the `c3 a7` in here. ---
**Author:** ![rvjansen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/rvjansen/32/3727_2.png) [@rvjansen](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/rvjansen)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/6 "2021-09-21T11:55:49Z")
Thanks Boris, will have a look at the encoding, will let you know. ---
**Author:** ![rvjansen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/rvjansen/32/3727_2.png) [@rvjansen](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/rvjansen)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 12:06pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/7 "2021-09-21T12:06:24Z")
yes, this is how it should be, U+00E7 ç c3 a7 LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA and this is how the line shows on my system: ```prolog 87654321 0011 2233 4455 6677 8899 aabb ccdd eeff 0123456789abcdef 00000000: 2741 4446 4439 4437 462d 4130 3546 2d34 'ADFD9D7F-A05F-4 00000010: 4442 332d 3842 3430 2d43 3738 3133 4433 DB3-8B40-C7813D3 00000020: 3930 3044 4327 2827 4539 3844 3931 3530 900DC'('E98D9150 00000030: 2d32 3330 332d 3131 4533 2d41 4342 452d -2303-11E3-ACBE- 00000040: 4530 4638 3437 3237 3736 3936 272c 696e E0F847277696',in 00000050: 6361 7061 c3a7 292e 0a capa..).. ``` If UTF-8 and Unicode are supported, and this works on your system, there must be something wrong with this Ubuntu (on an Intel NUC-7, twice upgraded 16-\>18, 18-\>20). Back to my Mac. ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 12:16pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/8 "2021-09-21T12:16:25Z")
The encoding of the file must match the default locale or the file must contain a (correct) `:- encoding(...).` directive at the start. It looks like the file has UTF-8 encoding. Typically, modern Linux systems also default to an UTF-8 based locale. Maybe not in this case? Try running `locale` in the shell. That should say something like LANG=…UTF-8. Also Prolog should answer on ``` ?- current_prolog_flag(encoding, X). X = utf8. ``` If the locale is wrong install the desired locale and set your `LANG` environment variable right. Alternatively you can use the `recode` utility to recode the file to the current locale. In these days you typically want your environment to use UTF-8 all over though. ---
**Author:** ![rvjansen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/rvjansen/32/3727_2.png) [@rvjansen](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/rvjansen)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 12:18pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/9 "2021-09-21T12:18:33Z")
aaargh! yes, that is it. ```prolog ?- current_prolog_flag(encoding,X). X = iso_latin_1. ``` Thanks, Jan and Boris! ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/10 "2021-09-21T12:22:14Z")
> [@rvjansen](#): > > ```prolog > X = iso_latin_1. > > ``` That points at a wrong locale. The encoding flag is initalized from `LC_CTYPE` or `LANG`. If this ends with UTF-8, `utf8` is assumed. If it is a known alias for ISO Latin 1, this is assume and else it is set to `text`, which causes Prolog to fallback to the C runtime library to translate input to Unicode. ---
**Author:** ![jan](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/jan/32/4_2.png) [@jan](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/jan)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/11 "2021-09-21T13:06:54Z")
> [@rvjansen](#): > > Due to horrible install problems I migrated from M1 Mac I compiled it on an M1. At least the current development version compiles fine after installing the dependencies using Macports. You can deduce the build process and dependencies from the [Portfile](https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/10246d58263864c7dda20dd306d9fb0f934c2392/lang/swi-prolog-devel/Portfile). I was impressed by the performance. It is about twice as fast as the GCC compiled version on my old Macbook air. AFAIK you cannot yet use GCC on the M1. Once you can, I’m curious about the results. At least on Intel, GCC produces much faster code for SWI-Prolog than Clang. I don’t know whether 8.2 compiles on the M1. It will be updated to 8.4 shortly anyway. ---
**Author:** ![rvjansen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/swi-prolog.discourse.group/rvjansen/32/3727_2.png) [@rvjansen](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/u/rvjansen)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2021, 1:24pm UTC](https://swi-prolog.discourse.group/t/trouble-with-unicode/4465/12 "2021-09-21T13:24:26Z")
I will try that certainly, soon. As I use NetRexx with JPL, that last component is a bit of a bottleneck. Brew does, for some reason not compile and install JPL; Ports fails with a build error on db53. The macOS package installer is X64\_64, and works well with Rosetta; only calling from Java into that dylib fails with a ‘wrong architecture’ error, for some reason Rosetta does not seem to support that (I have Zulu Java for ARM64). So I thought Linux would be faster, but I encountered an error there, which you thankfully diagnosed and which is fixed now. When 8.4 comes out, I’ll build that on the M1.