gistfile1.txt

use v5.14;

use XML::SAX::Writer;

my $w1 = XML::SAX::Writer->new(
    Output => '/tmp/writer-test1',
);

open my $fh, '>', '/tmp/writer-test2';
binmode $fh, ':encoding(UTF-8)';
my $w2 = XML::SAX::Writer->new(
    Output => $fh,
);


for my $w ( $w1, $w2 ) {
    $w->start_document();
    $w->start_element( { Name => 'foo' } );
    $w->characters( { Data => "foo - \x{20ac}" } );
    $w->end_element( { Name => 'foo' } );
    $w->end_document();
}