Xah Talk Show 2026-07-03 Ep802. Write JavaScript app to convert letters to Unicode Circled Letters โถ โท โธ
Video Summary (Generated by AI, Edited by Human.)
In this coding session, Xah Lee demonstrates how to build a JavaScript application that converts standard text into various Unicode characters, specifically focusing on circled letters (โถ โท โธ).
Key Highlights and Topics:
- Unicode Conversions: The video showcases how to generate various text styles using Unicode, including:
- Upside down text (1:31)
- Math fonts (e.g., bold, italic, script) (3:01)
- Squared letters (4:12)
- Full-width characters (4:45)
- Braille (5:12)
- Technical Workflow: Xah uses Emacs as his primary development environment and explains his process for setting up the new circled letter converter by repurposing existing code from his squared letters project (38:01).
Programming and Design Philosophy: Throughout the session, he discusses several broader topics, including:
- Software engineering scams: A critique of industry practices like Agile and SEO (15:14, 21:26).
- Syntax design: A discussion on the pros and cons of "sugar syntax" in languages like TypeScript (1:13:38).
- Personal history: He touches on his early experience with the HP28 calculator and the RPL programming language (33:03, 57:25).
- Tools Mentioned: He demonstrates his custom Emacs commands, such as toggle-letter-case and insert-a-to-z (43:24, 46:04).
- The video concludes with a brief mention of "funky" Unicode characters, which he plans to explore in a future episode (1:14:50).
- write js code to convert letters to this
- Unicode: Circled Letters โถ โท โธ
- Unicode Upside-Down Text ษ q ษ
- Unicode: Math Letters ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฎ ๐โฌ๐ ๐ธ๐นโ
- Unicode: Squared Letters ๐ ฐ ๐ ฑ ๐
- Unicode: Full-Width Characters
- Unicode: Rune แ แข แ แ
- Unicode: Braille โ ฎ
- Software Engineering Social Scams. Index
- Translation SEO Scam (2011)
- Why Does Google Give SEO Advice (2010)
- Google Crimes. Index.
- Homoglyph spam (2012)
- Web Spam, Scam, SEO. Index
- IBM RPG III
- HP-28S Calculator (1988)
in TypeScript, you can cast types to prevent some type errors from DOM. For example, you get
unicode_circled_characters.ts(20,86): error TS2339: Property 'value' does not exist on type 'Element'.
so what you can do is add this:
<HTMLInputElement> (expr)
or
(expr) as HTMLInputElement
now you have syntax design issue. should you have sugar syntax in your programing language? and , if not, which should you choose?