#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Encode;
use Devel::Peek;

my $a='AAA';
Dump($a);
$a = decode('utf8',$a);
Dump($a);

##</code><code>##

> ./utf8-1.pl
SV = PV(0x92a10a0) at 0x929ee10
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,POK,pPOK)
  PV = 0x92aea88 "AAA"\0
  CUR = 3
  LEN = 4
SV = PV(0x92a10a0) at 0x929ee10
  REFCNT = 1
  FLAGS = (PADBUSY,PADMY,POK,pPOK,UTF8)
  PV = 0x92f76c8 "AAA"\0 [UTF8 "AAA"]
  CUR = 3
  LEN = 4