# create a file in notepad with the single unicode character U+2190
#(left arrow)
# on the 2nd line, save as "UTF8"
open ( FH, "<:encoding(UTF-8)", "file.txt");

# since the BOM (byte order mark) will be read, we dont want it
#printed, so skip the first line.  this is why we typed the arrow on
#the second line
# NOT first line!
<FH>;
# now we are at the second line, save the arrow that should be here
my $line = <FH>;

# this gets rid of the wide character warning, as we know it is UTF8
utf8::encode($line);

# toggle between the following two print statements to see how they
# differ
# note the first one should print fine, but is kind of useless because
# if you print anything else, the output will be incorrect.  maybe
#because of mixing encodings, but it works fine redirected to a file.
# the second print statement shows this
#print "$line";
#print "($line)"