--- json/reader.inl	2011-12-04 15:16:48.000000000 -0700
+++ json/reader.inl	2013-02-23 16:17:10.000000000 -0700
@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBI
 
 TODO:
 * better documentation
-* unicode character decoding
 
 */
 
@@ -308,7 +307,7 @@ inline std::string Reader::MatchString(I
 
       // escape?
       if (c == '\\' &&
-          inputStream.EOS() == false) // shouldn't have reached the end yet
+         inputStream.EOS() == false) // shouldn't have reached the end yet
       {
          c = inputStream.Get();
          switch (c) {
@@ -320,7 +319,37 @@ inline std::string Reader::MatchString(I
             case 'n':      string.push_back('\n');    break;
             case 'r':      string.push_back('\r');    break;
             case 't':      string.push_back('\t');    break;
-            case 'u':      string.push_back('\u');    break; // TODO: what do we do with this?
+            case 'u': { // convert unicode to UTF-8
+               int x = 0, i;
+
+               // next four characters should be hex
+               for (i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
+                  c = inputStream.Get();
+                  if (c >= '0' && c <= '9') {
+                      x = (x << 4) | (c - '0');
+                  } else if (c >= 'a' && c <= 'f') {
+                      x = (x << 4) | (c - 'a' + 10);
+                  } else if (c >= 'A' && c <= 'F') {
+                      x = (x << 4) | (c - 'A' + 10);
+                  } else {
+                     std::string sMessage = std::string("Unrecognized hexadecimal character found in string: ") + c;
+                     throw ScanException(sMessage, inputStream.GetLocation());
+                  }
+               }
+
+               // encode as UTF-8
+               if (x < 0x80) {
+                   string.push_back(x);
+               } else if (x < 0x800) {
+                   string.push_back(0xc0 | (x >> 6));
+                   string.push_back(0x80 | (x & 0x3f));
+               } else {
+                   string.push_back(0xe0 | (x >> 12));
+                   string.push_back(0x80 | ((x >> 6) & 0x3f));
+                   string.push_back(0x80 | (x & 0x3f));
+               }
+               break;
+            }
             default: {
                std::string sMessage = std::string("Unrecognized escape sequence found in string: \\") + c;
                throw ScanException(sMessage, inputStream.GetLocation());
--- json/writer.inl	2011-12-04 15:16:48.000000000 -0700
+++ json/writer.inl	2013-02-25 09:29:35.000000000 -0700
@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBI
 
 TODO:
 * better documentation
-* unicode character encoding
 
 */
 
@@ -122,7 +121,7 @@ inline void Writer::Write_i(const Object
 
 inline void Writer::Write_i(const Number& numberElement)
 {
-   m_ostr << std::setprecision(20) << numberElement.Value();
+   m_ostr << std::dec << std::setprecision(20) << numberElement.Value();
 }
 
 inline void Writer::Write_i(const Boolean& booleanElement)
@@ -139,6 +138,48 @@ inline void Writer::Write_i(const String
                                itEnd(s.end());
    for (; it != itEnd; ++it)
    {
+      // check for UTF-8 unicode encoding
+      unsigned char u = static_cast<unsigned char>(*it);
+      if (u & 0xc0) {
+         if ((u & 0xe0) == 0xc0) {
+            // two-character sequence
+            int x = (*it & 0x1f) << 6;
+            if ((it + 1) == itEnd) {
+               m_ostr << *it; continue;
+            }
+            u = static_cast<unsigned char>(*(it + 1));
+            if ((u & 0xc0) == 0x80) {
+               x |= u & 0x3f;
+               m_ostr << "\\u" << std::hex << std::setfill('0')
+                  << std::setw(4) << x;
+               ++it;
+               continue;
+            }
+
+         } else if ((u & 0xf0) == 0xe0) {
+            // three-character sequence
+            int x = (u & 0x0f) << 12;
+            if ((it + 1) == itEnd) {
+               m_ostr << *it; continue;
+            }
+            u = static_cast<unsigned char>(*(it + 1));
+            if ((u & 0xc0) == 0x80) {
+               x |= (u & 0x3f) << 6;
+               if ((it + 2) == itEnd) {
+                  m_ostr << *it; continue;
+               }
+               u = static_cast<unsigned char>(*(it + 2));
+               if ((u & 0xc0) == 0x80) {
+                  x |= u & 0x3f;
+                  m_ostr << "\\u" << std::hex << std::setfill('0')
+                     << std::setw(4) << x;
+                  it = it + 2;
+                  continue;
+               }
+            }
+         }
+      }
+
       switch (*it)
       {
          case '"':         m_ostr << "\\\"";   break;
@@ -148,7 +189,6 @@ inline void Writer::Write_i(const String
          case '\n':        m_ostr << "\\n";    break;
          case '\r':        m_ostr << "\\r";    break;
          case '\t':        m_ostr << "\\t";    break;
-         case '\u':        m_ostr << "\\u";    break; // uh...
          default:          m_ostr << *it;      break;
       }
    }