<p dir="auto">While playing with <a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load title" data-id="34020893" data-permission-text="Title is private" data-url="https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/6911" data-hovercard-type="pull_request" data-hovercard-url="/JuliaLang/julia/pull/6911/hovercard" href="https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/6911">#6911</a> I ran into a strange intermittent problem.</p>
<div class="highlight highlight-source-julia notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" dir="auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="julia&gt; ° = pi/180
0.017453292519943295

julia&gt; 60°
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;?&quot;

julia&gt; 60°
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;?&quot;

julia&gt; 60°
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;?&quot;

julia&gt; 60°
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;?&quot;

julia&gt; 60°
1.0471975511965976

julia&gt; 60°
1.0471975511965976

julia&gt; 60°
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;?&quot;

julia&gt; 60°
1.0471975511965976"><pre class="notranslate">julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> ° <span class="pl-k">=</span> <span class="pl-c1">pi</span><span class="pl-k">/</span><span class="pl-c1">180</span>
<span class="pl-c1">0.017453292519943295</span>

julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> <span class="pl-c1">60</span>°
ERROR<span class="pl-k">:</span> syntax<span class="pl-k">:</span> invalid character <span class="pl-s"><span class="pl-pds">"</span>?<span class="pl-pds">"</span></span>

julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> <span class="pl-c1">60</span>°
ERROR<span class="pl-k">:</span> syntax<span class="pl-k">:</span> invalid character <span class="pl-s"><span class="pl-pds">"</span>?<span class="pl-pds">"</span></span>

julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> <span class="pl-c1">60</span>°
ERROR<span class="pl-k">:</span> syntax<span class="pl-k">:</span> invalid character <span class="pl-s"><span class="pl-pds">"</span>?<span class="pl-pds">"</span></span>

julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> <span class="pl-c1">60</span>°
ERROR<span class="pl-k">:</span> syntax<span class="pl-k">:</span> invalid character <span class="pl-s"><span class="pl-pds">"</span>?<span class="pl-pds">"</span></span>

julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> <span class="pl-c1">60</span>°
<span class="pl-c1">1.0471975511965976</span>

julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> <span class="pl-c1">60</span>°
<span class="pl-c1">1.0471975511965976</span>

julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> <span class="pl-c1">60</span>°
ERROR<span class="pl-k">:</span> syntax<span class="pl-k">:</span> invalid character <span class="pl-s"><span class="pl-pds">"</span>?<span class="pl-pds">"</span></span>

julia<span class="pl-k">&gt;</span> <span class="pl-c1">60</span>°
<span class="pl-c1">1.0471975511965976</span></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">The first two degree signs were entered with \degree TAB, the remaining lines with arrow up. I cannot provoke the same problem with <code class="notranslate">60.0°</code> or with <code class="notranslate">sin(60°)</code>. Switching from \degree to \alpha gives the same behavior.</p>
<p dir="auto">At first I thought it could have been an issue related to how I copied and pasted the pi character because after pasting it again it simply worked but after playing with multiplications I get seemingly random errors like:</p>
<p dir="auto">ERROR: syntax: invalid character "�"</p>
<p dir="auto">Notice how 2 * π evaluates as expected but 2π raises an exception...</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="notroot@dev-mint ~ $ julia
               _
   _       _ _(_)_     |  A fresh approach to technical computing
  (_)     | (_) (_)    |  Documentation: http://docs.julialang.org
   _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  Type &quot;help()&quot; to list help topics
  | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
  | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  Version 0.3.0-prerelease
 _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  Official http://julialang.org release
|__/                   |  i686-linux-gnu

julia&gt; ☃ = 1
1

julia&gt; ☃
1

julia&gt; ☃ 
1

julia&gt; ☃ 
1

julia&gt; ☃
1

julia&gt; 3☃
3

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; 5☃8
ERROR: ☃8 not defined

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; s = &quot;This is a string.&quot;
&quot;This is a string.&quot;

julia&gt; s = &quot;âThis is a string.&quot;
&quot;âThis is a string.&quot;

julia&gt; s[1]
'â'

julia&gt; s[2]
ERROR: invalid UTF-8 character index
 in getindex at utf8.jl:63

julia&gt; s[3]
'T'

julia&gt; @printf &quot;%d is less than %f&quot; 4.5 5.3 # casa
5 is less than 5.300000
julia&gt; bla! = 2
2

julia&gt; Bla! = 2
2

julia&gt; Bla! = 6
6

julia&gt; bla!
2

julia&gt; Bla!
6

julia&gt; 2 * π
6.283185307179586

julia&gt; 2π
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;�&quot;

julia&gt; ☃
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;�&quot;

julia&gt; π
π = 3.1415926535897...

julia&gt; ☃
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;�&quot;

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; ☃
1

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; 5☃
ERROR: syntax: invalid character &quot;�&quot;

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; ☃
1

julia&gt; π
π = 3.1415926535897...

julia&gt; "><pre class="notranslate"><code class="notranslate">notroot@dev-mint ~ $ julia
               _
   _       _ _(_)_     |  A fresh approach to technical computing
  (_)     | (_) (_)    |  Documentation: http://docs.julialang.org
   _ _   _| |_  __ _   |  Type "help()" to list help topics
  | | | | | | |/ _` |  |
  | | |_| | | | (_| |  |  Version 0.3.0-prerelease
 _/ |\__'_|_|_|\__'_|  |  Official http://julialang.org release
|__/                   |  i686-linux-gnu

julia&gt; ☃ = 1
1

julia&gt; ☃
1

julia&gt; ☃ 
1

julia&gt; ☃ 
1

julia&gt; ☃
1

julia&gt; 3☃
3

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; 5☃8
ERROR: ☃8 not defined

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; s = "This is a string."
"This is a string."

julia&gt; s = "âThis is a string."
"âThis is a string."

julia&gt; s[1]
'â'

julia&gt; s[2]
ERROR: invalid UTF-8 character index
 in getindex at utf8.jl:63

julia&gt; s[3]
'T'

julia&gt; @printf "%d is less than %f" 4.5 5.3 # casa
5 is less than 5.300000
julia&gt; bla! = 2
2

julia&gt; Bla! = 2
2

julia&gt; Bla! = 6
6

julia&gt; bla!
2

julia&gt; Bla!
6

julia&gt; 2 * π
6.283185307179586

julia&gt; 2π
ERROR: syntax: invalid character "�"

julia&gt; ☃
ERROR: syntax: invalid character "�"

julia&gt; π
π = 3.1415926535897...

julia&gt; ☃
ERROR: syntax: invalid character "�"

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; ☃
1

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; 5☃
ERROR: syntax: invalid character "�"

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; 5☃*2
10

julia&gt; 5☃
5

julia&gt; ☃
1

julia&gt; π
π = 3.1415926535897...

julia&gt; 
</code></pre></div>
<p dir="auto">Any clues?</p>
<p dir="auto">EDIT: adding versioninfo</p>
<div class="snippet-clipboard-content notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="julia&gt; versioninfo()
Julia Version 0.3.0-prerelease
Platform Info:
  System: Linux (i686-linux-gnu)
  CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 450  @ 2.40GHz
  WORD_SIZE: 32
  BLAS: libblas.so.3
  LAPACK: liblapack.so.3
  LIBM: libopenlibm"><pre class="notranslate"><code class="notranslate">julia&gt; versioninfo()
Julia Version 0.3.0-prerelease
Platform Info:
  System: Linux (i686-linux-gnu)
  CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 450  @ 2.40GHz
  WORD_SIZE: 32
  BLAS: libblas.so.3
  LAPACK: liblapack.so.3
  LIBM: libopenlibm
</code></pre></div>