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Comment by inopinatus | Hacker News Reader

Is there any particular reason not to use emoji? JavaScript is by specification a unicode language. I already have registered users in my system with pictographic name strings, why not software? Might be some introductory issues with logs and terminals and incorrect assumptions by developer tools, surely nothing we can't fix.

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- Hey, I’m new to programming, which framework is the best for creating single page applications?
- Hello, I believe .js is the best, but at work we use .js for its speed and flexibility. Other popular choices are .js, .js and .js. Hope I’ve helped!

- That’s great! Thanks a lot!

Well, at least it's shorter, so there's that..

edit: Ok, that's the reason...

That's not a reason not to use emoji. That's a reason to drag an ASCII-centric communications medium into the Unicode era. We're in an time where application data is Unicode. You may wish to paste such data into a chat, or refer to people and organisations whose names aren't written in latin script.

When your chosen comms medium doesn't support those things, it should be updated.

Let's imagine that was a transcript of a verbal conversation. How would you pronounce the emoji? Facial expressions?

I've never been afraid to use interpretive dance in my presentations.

What actually happens: see Chinese. One broadly-speaking-unified set of logograms, 200 spoken dialects, of which a handful are widely adopted, and one has governmental primacy.

I've had Chinese lessons and even Chinese people have problems understanding each other for example because of voice and voice emotions are so important. I think Chinese language shouldn't be role model for what IT world should be. :)

Oh, I agree, it's not a role model. I think it stands as an example of possible emergent outcome.

Obviously facial expressions combined with illustrating sound sequences to resolve ambiguities.

- Hello, I believe MEEP.js is the best, but at work we use MOOP.js for its speed and flexibility. Other popular choices are WEEEEE.js, BLEEEH.js and WEEOOHWEEHOOWEEBLUB.js. Hope I’ve helped!

- That’s great! Thanks a lot!

Indeed, there is never a valid reason not to use emoji.

(Though in this case, the communication medium is Hacker News. Shame on you, Hacker News!)

Fun thing; I named Umbrella JS that way when i realized that you can use unicode as javascript variable names AND I just happened to find that as the first one. So the initial library (a jQuery sustitute) was literaly `"UMBRELLA UNICODE"('selector')` (note: HN doesn't allow for the character). Of course sanity came back and when releasing something decent I changed the name back to "u('selector')"

See the character I mean: http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2602/index.htm

Wow, that's curious! Did it work in JavaScript though? Or just in name of package? :)

I doesn't seem to work anymore! But it used to work as the library was using that in the beginning.

Have you ever tried typing emoji? Or reading it? Or writing it? Or speaking it?

Go give a tech talk about .js but careful, don't want to confuse it with .js

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