#!perl -w
# usage:  perl latin2eight.pl INFILE OUTFILE

use strict;

my($in,$out) = @ARGV;

open(IN,$in) or die "cannot open $in $!";
open(OUT,">$out") or die "cannot open $out $!";

binmode OUT;

# use utf8; # treat input as utf8 characters, not byte series.

use Unicode::String 'latin1', 'utf8'; # ,'byteswap2', 'utf16';

# $firstString = utf8($firstString);
# print OUT byteswap2($firstString->utf16);

# stick the BOM at the beginning, as a hint that this is a UTF8 file.
my $bom = Unicode::String->new();
$bom->chr(0xfeff);
print OUT $bom;  # this is the bom. :-)

# print all remaining lines.
while (<IN>) {
    my($u) = latin1($_);
    print OUT $u->utf8;
}

close(IN) or die "cannot close $in $!";
close(OUT) or die "cannot close $out $!";