First, you need to have built xemacs itself with USE=mule. Then, the
app-xemacs/mule-ucs package is needed. To autoload Unicode support,
you can add the following to your ~/.xemacs/init.el:
(require 'un-define)
If automatic character set detection on files is not working properly, here are three commands that can help.
set-buffer-file-coding-system (C-x RET f) changes the coding
system for the current file.
set-default-buffer-file-coding-system (C-x RET F) sets the default for
unsaved buffers and ASCII-looking files that have no obvious character
set markers for autodetection.
universal-coding-system-argument (C-x RET c)
lets you set the coding system for the next command, so issuing
this from a dired window immediately before opening a problematic file
is a tactic that can be of use when autodetection gets things
pathologically wrong.
The current coding system will be displayed near the left edge of the status line.