how do I setup UTF-8?

[Michael Stevens <mstevens@etla.org>]

Hi.

I'm trying to get UTF-8 working. Specifically, I want to use the
en_GB.UTF-8 locale. I'm on Debian stable.

I've successfully generated the locale and set it as the default in
/etc/environment, and am now in a confusing situation where it works
in some tools but not others.

I use zsh as my shell, and when I type a pound sign (ie the symbol
with the HTML entity £) I get a square box followed by what I
expected. (in xterm). It also starts allowing me to backspace over
bits of my prompt. I'm using uxterm, which is supposed to set things
up right for unicode from what I've read.

gnome-terminal performs slightly better - the pound signs come out
right, but for each one I type I can backspace over another character
of the prompt.

Some applications seem fine - pound signs work correctly in vim, for
example.

Is there a way to make this all work?

Michael