Typing is slow as fuck after C-x 8 RET 2103?

I use emacs when I write; I’m not a programmer. I’m a cook and writing some personal projects on fermentation and sauces and cooking techniques and whatnot. Anyway, that’s beside the point. I wanted to write the degree Celsius symbol and so I did C-X 8 Ret 2103, and lo and behold, there it was. But after that whenever I wrote, emacs just wrote very slowly. This got fixed when I removed the Celsius symbol. The encoding is and always has been utf-8. This is not pogchamp.

I just tried adding the ℃ symbol and see no slowdown on my system. I also tried `C-x 8 o` followed by `C` and this also worked just fine. Do you use a framework like Doom or Spacemacs or use your own config?

Hi! Always glad to see a non-programmer using Emacs. It would be helpful to have information like your version number, operating system, etc. At a guess, here's a potentially relevant thread: [https://github.com/purcell/emacs.d/issues/273](https://github.com/purcell/emacs.d/issues/273) The TLDR of that link: try setting `(setq inhibit-compacting-font-caches t)` in your config and see if that helps. It seems Emacs has some issues with Unicode characters on specific versions, it's a hard to reproduce bug. You can also check if your config specifies a font, and see if changing that helps, some people in that thread noted some fonts cause weird issues. [As noted in this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/5z2zkk/help_emcas_very_slow_with_one_particular_file_on/), you can try using the Symbola font, which seems to behave itself for Unicode.

Is this reproducible when launching emacs via `emacs -Q`, or is the issue in your config?

Thank you so much for trying to help me. I’ll provide some more information. I tried adding it to my .emacs, but alas. I’m using windows 10, emacs 24.3.1. My config I’ve intentionally kept short and readable: (set-foreground-color "burlywood") (set-background-color "#161616") (set-cursor-color "#40FF40") (setq-default window-size-fixed t) (setq make-backup-files nil) (setq auto-save-default nil) (setf (cdr (assq 'continuation fringe-indicator-alist)) '(nil nil) ) I just didn’t want this continuation indicator nor backup files or autosave files. Issue remains when I opt to use the default configuration anyway. If this is not easily fixable, is there an easier way to produce the Celsius symbol through emacs? Not sure if that would be feasible as a workaround since the symbol ought to be the same but who knows.

Thank you for your response. Issue remains despite -Qing that shit.

Spacemacs sounds cool. But I use the regular emacs. Issue remains regardless of whether I use my config or not. Thank you for your response

I think you can try to install a newer version of eMacs, and if speed is a problem I would recommend one that has native compilation enabled.

That version of Emacs is 8 years old. I'd avise upgrading first. Maybe a newer version has fixed the problem.

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I’d say this first.. thats a reaaaally old emacs.

I'd agree with other commenters that upgrading your emacs would be a good first step. Consult [this page](https://lucidmanager.org/productivity/emacs-windows/) for any needed guidance. That may just fix the issue entirely, there has been a ton of work on the internals of emacs rendering/display since the version you're using. Make sure to uninstall your current version before installing new, which you can do through the standard Windows uninstall or just locate the Emacs application in your filesystem and delete it.

I’m afraid of change and condemn all that is unknown to me. But this worked hahah. Thank you.

Great! Glad it worked.

> If this is not easily fixable, is there an easier way to produce the Celsius symbol through emacs? You can bind it to a key combination that is shorter than C-x 8 Ret 2103 - I'd call that easier. For example, bind it to C-M-c like this: (defun insert-celsius () (interactive) (insert-char #x2103)) (global-set-key (kbd "C-M-c") #'insert-celsius) (it probably has the same effect on typing as doing what you were doing, but that probably doesn't matter, since I see that's been solved...)

Emacs upgrades are usually pretty headache free. Remarkable piece of software. 10/10 for being brave and upgrading an ancient version!

40 year programmer here. Upgrading has unlimited downsides and often few upsides. Your attitude is wise.

Perhaps a corrupt font?