I am very happy with Emacs Unicode support and use it all the
time. However, the shell apparently is not as Unicode-friendly as it
should be.

Sorry I don’t know how to reproduce this bug in pure Emacs, it requires
installing an external program. This is a python script, that in some
cases dies because the stream it tries to output doesn’t support
Unicode. The program works fine in a standard Mac Terminal window, but
not within Emacs.

More details here:
https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi/issues/9#issuecomment-12014746

I attempted to set the buffer coding system to utf-8, but that didn’t help.



In GNU Emacs 24.1.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin, NS apple-appkit-1038.36)
 of 2012-06-10 on bob.porkrind.org
Windowing system distributor `Apple', version 10.3.1187
Configured using:
 `configure '--host=x86_64-apple-darwin' '--build=i686-apple-darwin'
 '--with-ns' 'build_alias=i686-apple-darwin'
 'host_alias=x86_64-apple-darwin' 'CC=gcc -mmacosx-version-min=10.5''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: nil
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: nil
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Shell

Minor modes in effect:
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  dynamic-completion-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
e m <return> <help-echo> h o w d i <backspace> o i
SPC m a k e SPC m o n e y <return> <help-echo> h o
w d o i SPC f i n g <backspace> d SPC t h e SPC M-b
M-b C-k r e c o v e r SPC t h e SPC h o l y SPC g r
a i <return> <C-up> l <return> <C-up> C-a M-f M-f C-M-b
C-M-k f i n d <return> <C-up> C-a M-f SPC - l <return>
C-p <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1>
<help-echo> h o w d o i SPC g e t SPC t e n u r e <return>
<C-up> C-a M-f SPC - l <return> <C-up> C-a M-f M-f
M-b C-k C-b C-k w i n SPC t h e SPC h e a r t SPC o
f SPC a SPC f a i r SPC m a i d e n <return> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> h o w d i <backspace> o i SPC
w i n SPC a SPC l a n g SPC w a <backspace> <backspace>
<backspace> <backspace> d SPC w a r SPC i n SPC a s
i a <return> <C-up> C-a M-f M-f M-b C-k r e a c h SPC
e n l i g h t M-b M-b C-k a t t a i n SPC e n l i g
h t e n m e n t <return> <help-echo> <C-up> C-a M-f
M-f M-b C-a C-k p u y t <backspace> <backspace> <backspace>
y u <backspace> t h o n SPC - - v e r s i o n <return>
C-p <escape> x e w <backspace> <backspace> r e p o
<tab> r e <tab> <backspace> t <tab> e <backspace> <tab>
<return>

Recent messages:
Saving file
/misc/cdd/cdd/ruby/spec/controllers/api/v1/molecules_controller_spec.rb...
Wrote
/misc/cdd/cdd/ruby/spec/controllers/api/v1/molecules_controller_spec.rb
(No changes need to be saved)
History item: 1 [2 times]
Mark set
byte-code: End of buffer
History item: 1 [4 times]
Mark set
History item: 1 [8 times]
Making completion list...

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow mail-extr emacsbug message rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode
mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader
sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mail-utils cus-start cus-load
pcmpl-unix sort nxml-uchnm rng-xsd xsd-regexp rng-cmpct rng-nxml
rng-valid rng-loc rng-uri rng-parse nxml-parse rng-match rng-dt rng-util
rng-pttrn nxml-ns nxml-mode nxml-outln nxml-rap nxml-util nxml-glyph
nxml-enc xmltok macros add-log log-view pcvs-util find-dired grep
compile iso-transl wid-edit descr-text xub-mode vc-dispatcher vc-svn
sgml-mode tabify dired-aux network-stream starttls tls slime-repl slime
hyperspec browse-url vc-hg org-special-blocks org-w3m org-wl org-vm
org-rmail org-mhe org-mew org-irc org-jsinfo org-infojs org-html org-exp
ob-exp org-exp-blocks org-agenda org-info org-gnus org-docview
org-bibtex bibtex org-bbdb org warnings ob-emacs-lisp ob-tangle ob-ref
ob-lob ob-table org-footnote org-src ob-comint ob-keys ob ob-eval
org-pcomplete org-list org-faces org-compat org-entities org-macs
noutline outline cal-menu calendar cal-loaddefs jka-compr find-func
multi-isearch image-mode apropos ibuf-ext ibuffer tramp-cache tramp
tramp-compat auth-source eieio assoc gnus-util mm-util mail-prsvr
password-cache format-spec tramp-loaddefs ielm pp etags vc-git
face-remap help-mode view dired shell pcomplete comint ansi-color ring
time textmate ido haml-mode derived js byte-opt bytecomp byte-compile
cconv macroexp json imenu thingatpt javascript-mode newcomment cc-mode
cc-fonts easymenu cc-guess cc-menus cc-cmds cc-styles cc-align cc-engine
cc-vars cc-defs css-mode ruby-mode regexp-opt cl edmacro kmacro
completion smart-quotes easy-mmode annot advice help-fns advice-preload
cdd-startup mt-el-hacks mt-slime time-date tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks
lisp-float-type mwheel ns-win tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe
lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar
mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian
utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean
japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian
cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev
minibuffer loaddefs button faces cus-face files text-properties overlay
sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget
hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process ns multi-tty
emacs)