Replaces encoded chars with unicode (stops fighting with npm)

Preserves spaces in format strings

package.json

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
     "name": "gitlens",
-    "displayName": "GitLens \u2014 Git supercharged",
-    "description": "Supercharge the Git capabilities built into Visual Studio Code \u2014 Visualize code authorship at a glance via Git blame annotations and code lens, seamlessly navigate and explore Git repositories, gain valuable insights via powerful comparison commands, and so much more",
+    "displayName": "GitLens — Git supercharged",
+    "description": "Supercharge the Git capabilities built into Visual Studio Code — Visualize code authorship at a glance via Git blame annotations and code lens, seamlessly navigate and explore Git repositories, gain valuable insights via powerful comparison commands, and so much more",
     "version": "8.5.0",
     "author": {
         "name": "Eric Amodio",
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@
                 },
                 "gitlens.currentLine.format": {
                     "type": "string",
-                    "default": "${authorAgoOrDate} \u2022 ${message}",
+                    "default": "${authorAgoOrDate} • ${message}",
                     "description": "Specifies the format of the current line blame annotation\nAvailable tokens\n ${id} - commit id\n ${author} - commit author\n ${message} - commit message\n ${ago} - relative commit date (e.g. 1 day ago)\n ${date} - formatted commit date (format specified by `gitlens.currentLine.dateFormat`)\n ${agoOrDate} - commit date specified by `gitlens.defaultDateStyle`\n ${authorAgo} - commit author, relative commit date\n ${authorAgoOrDate} - commit author, commit date specified by `gitlens.defaultDateStyle`\nSee https://github.com/eamodio/vscode-gitlens/wiki/Advanced-Formatting for advanced formatting",
                     "scope": "window"
                 },
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@
                 },
                 "gitlens.explorers.commitFormat": {
                     "type": "string",
-                    "default": "${message} \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 ${authorAgoOrDate} \u00a0 (${id})",
+                    "default": "${message}  •  ${authorAgoOrDate}   (${id})",
                     "description": "Specifies the format of committed changes in the `GitLens` and `GitLens Results` explorers\nAvailable tokens\n ${id} - commit id\n ${author} - commit author\n ${message} - commit message\n ${ago} - relative commit date (e.g. 1 day ago)\n ${date} - formatted commit date (format specified by `gitlens.defaultDateFormat`)\\n ${agoOrDate} - commit date specified by `gitlens.defaultDateStyle`\n ${authorAgo} - commit author, relative commit date\n ${authorAgoOrDate} - commit author, commit date specified by `gitlens.defaultDateStyle`\nSee https://github.com/eamodio/vscode-gitlens/wiki/Advanced-Formatting for advanced formatting",
                     "scope": "window"
                 },
@@ -627,7 +627,7 @@
                         "chorded",
                         "none"
                     ],
-                    "description": "Specifies the keymap to use for GitLens shortcut keys\n `alternate` - adds an alternate set of shortcut keys that start with `Alt` (\u2325 on macOS)\n `chorded` - adds a chorded set of shortcut keys that start with `Ctrl+Alt+G` (`\u2325\u2318G` on macOS)\n `none` - no shortcut keys will be added",
+                    "description": "Specifies the keymap to use for GitLens shortcut keys\n `alternate` - adds an alternate set of shortcut keys that start with `Alt` (⌥ on macOS)\n `chorded` - adds a chorded set of shortcut keys that start with `Ctrl+Alt+G` (`⌥⌘G` on macOS)\n `none` - no shortcut keys will be added",
                     "scope": "window"
                 },
                 "gitlens.menus": {

src/git/formatters/formatter.ts

@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ export interface IFormatOptions {
 
 type Constructor<T = {}> = new (...args: any[]) => T;
 
+const spaceReplacementRegex = / /g;
+
 export abstract class Formatter<TItem = any, TOptions extends IFormatOptions = IFormatOptions> {
     protected _item!: TItem;
     protected _options!: TOptions;
@@ -97,6 +99,8 @@ export abstract class Formatter
         item: TItem,
         dateFormatOrOptions?: string | null | TOptions
     ): string {
+        // Preserve spaces
+        template = template.replace(spaceReplacementRegex, '\u00a0');
         if (formatter instanceof Formatter) return Strings.interpolate(template, formatter);
 
         let options: TOptions | undefined = undefined;