Hello andrew,   
      
   On Saturday June 06 2015 21:15, you wrote to Nicholas Boel:   
      
    ac> It supports writing UTF-8 messages, provided a UTF-8 capable external   
    ac> editor is used, as you say, but that's about it.   
      
   No, to write a message in UTF-8, you do not need to use an external editor.   
   What you need is the proper translation table from your local set to UTF-8.   
      
   It is reading message in UTF-8 that is problematic.   
      
      
   Here is my translation table from CP850 to UTF-8:   
   850_utf.chs   
      
      
   === Cut ===   
    file 850_utf8.chs   
      
    This file is a charset conversion module in text form.   
      
    This module Converts IBM CP850 characters to UTF-8 characters.   
      
    By Michiel van der Vlist, 2:280/5555   
      
    This is a modified version that translates the currency symbol € (Alt 207)   
    (hex CF) into the Euro sign.   
      
    Format: ID, version, level,   
            from charset, to charset,   
            128 entries: first, second and optional third byte   
            "END"   
    Lines beginning with a ";" or a ";" after the entries are comments   
      
      
    cedilla = ,   ; dieresis = ..       ; acute = '   
    grave = `     ; circumflex = ^      ; ring = o   
    tilde = ~     ; caron = v   
    All of these are above the character, apart from the cedilla which is below.   
      
    \ is the escape character: \0 means decimal zero,   
    \dnnn where nnn is a decimal number is the ordinal value of the character   
    \xnn where nn is a hexadecimal number   
    e.g.: \d32 is the ASCII space character   
    Two \\ is the character "\" itself.   
      
   4                 ; ID number   
   1                 ; version number   
      
   2 4               ; level number   
      
   CP850             ; from set   
   UTF-8             ; to set   
                    ; dec hx description   
      
   \xC3 \x87         ; 128 80 latin capital letter c with cedilla   
   \xC3 \xBC         ; 129 81 latin small letter u with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \xA9         ; 130 82 latin small letter e with acute   
   \xC3 \xA2         ; 131 83 latin small letter a with circumflex   
   \xC3 \xA4         ; 132 84 latin small letter a with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \xA0         ; 133 85 latin small letter a with grave   
   \xC3 \xA5         ; 134 86 latin small letter a with ring above   
   \xC3 \xA7         ; 135 87 latin small letter c with cedilla   
   \xC3 \xAA         ; 136 88 latin small letter e with circumflex   
   \xC3 \xAB         ; 137 89 latin small letter e with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \xA8         ; 138 8A latin small letter e with grave   
   \xC3 \xAF         ; 139 8B latin small letter i with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \xAE         ; 140 8C latin small letter i with circumflex   
   \xC3 \xAC         ; 141 8D latin small letter i with grave   
   \xC3 \x84         ; 142 8E latin capital letter a with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \x85         ; 143 8F latin capital letter a with ring above   
   \xC3 \x89         ; 144 90 latin capital letter e with acute   
   \xC3 \xA6         ; 145 91 latin small letter ae   
   \xC3 \x86         ; 146 92 latin capital letter ae   
   \xC3 \xB4         ; 147 93 latin small letter o with circumflex   
   \xC3 \xB6         ; 148 94 latin small letter o with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \xB2         ; 149 95 latin small letter o with grave   
   \xC3 \xBB         ; 150 96 latin small letter u with circumflex   
   \xC3 \xB9         ; 151 97 latin small letter u with grave   
   \xC3 \xBF         ; 152 98 latin small letter y with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \x96         ; 153 99 latin capital letter o with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \x9C         ; 154 9A latin capital letter u with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \xB8         ; 155 9B latin small letter o with stroke   
   \xC2 \xA3         ; 156 9C pound sign   
   \xC3 \x98         ; 157 9D latin capital letter o with stroke   
   \xC3 \x97         ; 158 9E multiplication sign   
   \xC6 \x92         ; 159 9F dutch guilder sign (ibm437 159) (f with hook)   
   \xC3 \xA1         ; 160 A0 latin small letter a with acute   
   \xC3 \xAD         ; 161 A1 latin small letter i with acute   
   \xC3 \xB3         ; 162 A2 latin small letter o with acute   
   \xC3 \xBA         ; 163 A3 latin small letter u with acute   
   \xC3 \xB1         ; 164 A4 latin small letter n with tilde   
   \xC3 \x91         ; 165 A5 latin capital letter n with tilde   
   \xC2 \xB8         ; 166 A6 feminine ordinal indicator   
   \xC2 \xBA         ; 167 A7 masculine ordinal indicator   
   \xC2 \xBF         ; 168 A8 inverted question mark   
   \xC2 \xAE         ; 169 A9 registered sign   
   \xC2 \xAC         ; 170 AA not sign   
   \xC2 \xBD         ; 171 AB vulgar fraction one half   
   \xC2 \xBC         ; 172 AC vulgar fraction one quarter   
   \xC2 \xA1         ; 173 AD inverted exclamation mark   
   \xC2 \xAB         ; 174 AE left-pointing double angle quotation mark   
   \xC2 \xBB         ; 175 AF right-pointing double angle quotation mark   
   \xE2 \x96 \x91    ; 176 B0 light shade   
   \xE2 \x96 \x92    ; 177 B1 medium shade   
   \xE2 \x96 \x93    ; 178 B2 dark shade   
   \xE2 \x94 \x82    ; 179 B3 box drawings light vertical   
   \xE2 \x94 \xA4    ; 180 B4 box drawings light vertical and left   
   \xC3 \x81         ; 181 B5 latin capital letter a with acute   
   \xC3 \x82         ; 182 B6 latin capital letter a with circumflex   
   \xC3 \x80         ; 183 B7 latin capital letter a with grave   
   \xC2 \xA9         ; 184 B8 copyright sign   
   \xE2 \x95 \xA3    ; 185 B9 box drawings heavy vertical and left   
   \xE2 \x95 \x91    ; 186 BA box drawings heavy vertical   
   \xE2 \x95 \x97    ; 187 BB box drawings heavy down and left   
   \xE2 \x95 \x9D    ; 188 BC box drawings heavy up and left   
   \xC2 \xA2         ; 189 BD cent sign   
   \xC2 \xA5         ; 190 BE yen sign   
   \xE2 \x94 \x90    ; 191 BF box drawings light down and left   
   \xE2 \x94 \x94    ; 192 C0 box drawings light up and right   
   \xE2 \x94 \xB4    ; 193 C1 box drawings light up and horizontal   
   \xE2 \x94 \xAC    ; 194 C2 box drawings light down and horizontal   
   \xE2 \x94 \x9C    ; 195 C3 box drawings light vertical and right   
   \xE2 \x94 \x80    ; 196 C4 box drawings light horizontal   
   \xE2 \x94 \xBC    ; 197 C5 box drawings light vertical and horizontal   
   \xC3 \xA3         ; 198 C6 latin small letter a with tilde   
   \xC3 \x83         ; 199 C7 latin capital letter a with tilde   
   \xE2 \x95 \x9A    ; 200 C8 box drawings heavy up and right   
   \xE2 \x95 \x94    ; 201 C9 box drawings heavy down and right   
   \xE2 \x95 \xA9    ; 202 CA box drawings heavy up and horizontal   
   \xE2 \x95 \xA6    ; 203 CB box drawings heavy down and horizontal   
   \xE2 \x95 \xA0    ; 204 CC box drawings heavy vertical and right   
   \xE2 \x95 \x90    ; 205 CD box drawings heavy horizontal   
   \xE2 \x95 \xAC    ; 206 CE box drawings heavy vertical and horizontal   
   \xC2 \xA4         ; 207 CF currency sign   
   \xE2 \x82 \xAC    ; 207 CF Euro sign.   
   \xC3 \xB0         ; 208 D0 latin small letter eth (icelandic)   
   \xC3 \x90         ; 209 D1 latin capital letter eth (icelandic)   
   \xC3 \x8A         ; 210 D2 latin capital letter e with circumflex   
   \xC3 \x8B         ; 211 D3 latin capital letter e with diaeresis   
   \xC3 \x88         ; 212 D4 latin capital letter e with grave   
   \xC4 \xB1         ; 213 D5 latin small letter i dotless   
   \xC3 \x8D         ; 214 D6 latin capital letter i with acute   
   \xC3 \x8E         ; 215 D7 latin capital letter i with circumflex   
   \xC3 \x8F         ; 216 D8 latin capital letter i with diaeresis   
   \xE2 \x94 \x98    ; 217 D9 box drawings light up and left   
   \xE2 \x94 \x8C    ; 218 DA box drawings light down and right   
   \xE2 \x96 \x88    ; 219 DB full block   
   \xE2 \x96 \x84    ; 220 DC lower half block   
   \xC2 \xA6         ; 221 DD broken bar   
   \xC3 \x8C         ; 222 DE latin capital letter i with grave   
   \xE2 \x96 \x80    ; 223 DF upper half block   
   \xC3 \x93         ; 224 E0 latin capital letter o with acute   
   \xC3 \x9F         ; 225 E1 latin small letter sharp s (german)   
   \xC3 \x94         ; 226 E2 latin capital letter o with circumflex   
   \xC3 \x92         ; 227 E3 latin capital letter o with grave   
   \xC3 \xB5         ; 228 E4 latin small letter o with tilde   
   \xC3 \x95         ; 229 E5 latin capital letter o with tilde   
   \xC2 \xB5         ; 230 E6 greek small letter mu   
   \xC3 \x9E         ; 231 E7 latin capital letter thorn (icelandic)   
   \xC3 \xBE         ; 232 E8 latin small letter thorn (icelandic)   
   \xC3 \x9A         ; 233 E9 latin capital letter u with acute   
   \xC3 \x9B         ; 234 EA latin capital letter u with circumflex   
   \xC3 \x99         ; 235 EB latin capital letter u with grave   
   \xC3 \xBD         ; 236 EC latin small letter y with acute   
   \xC3 \x9D         ; 237 ED latin capital letter y with acute   
   \xC3 \x8F         ; 238 EE em dash   
   \xC2 \xB4         ; 239 EF acute accent   
   \xC2 \xAD         ; 240 F0 soft hyphen   
   \xC2 \xB1         ; 241 F1 plus-minus sign   
   \xE2 \x80 \x97    ; 242 F2 left right double arrow   
   \xC2 \xBE         ; 243 F3 vulgar fraction three quarters   
   \xC2 \xB6         ; 244 F4 pilcrow sign   
   \xC2 \xA7         ; 245 F5 section sign   
   \xC3 \xB7         ; 246 F6 division sign   
   \xC2 \xB8         ; 247 F7 ogonek   
   \xC2 \xB0         ; 248 F8 degree sign   
   \xC2 \xA8         ; 249 F9 diaeresis   
   \xC2 \xB7         ; 250 FA middle dot   
   \xC2 \xB9         ; 251 FB superscript one   
   \xC2 \xB3         ; 252 FC superscript three   
   \xC2 \xB2         ; 253 FD superscript two   
   \xE2 \x96 \xA0    ; 254 FE black square   
   \xC2 \xA0         ; 255 FF no-break space   
   END   
   === Cut ===   
      
      
   Cheers, Michiel   
      
   --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20130111   
    * Origin: http://www.vlist.eu (2:280/5555)