I have implemented code to do this which I think is better than John Meacham's, because it (a) handles all UTF8 sequences (up to 6 bytes); (b) checks for errors as UTF8 decoders are supposed to do; (c) lets you determine if there is an error without having to seq the entire list. Here is a link: http://www.haskell.org//pipermail/glasgow-haskell-users/2004-April/006564.ht...