Q1.3.8: Does SXEmacs support Unicode?

Partially, as an external encoding for files, processes, and terminals. It does not yet support Unicode fonts Does SXEmacs support Unicode Fonts?

To get Unicode support, you need a Mule-enabled SXEmacs. Install Mule-UCS from packages in the usual way. Put

(require 'un-define)
(set-coding-priority-list '(utf-8))
(set-coding-category-system 'utf-8 'utf-8)

in your init file to enable the UTF-8 coding system. You may wish to view the documentation of set-coding-priority-list if you find that files that are not UTF-8 are being mis-recognised as UTF-8.

Install standard national fonts (not Unicode fonts) for all character sets you use. See Q1.3.9.

Mule-UCS also supports 16-bit forms of Unicode (UTF-16). It does not support 31-bit forms of Unicode (UTF-32 or UCS-4).