in reply to XML::Simple and ISO-8859-1 encoding buggy?
From the XML::Simple documentation:
SYNOPSIS
PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS MODULE IN NEW CODE. If you ignore this warning and use it anyway, the qw(:strict) mode will save you a little pain.
That doesn't directly address your conversion issue, but it does speak to the (low) likely hood of the module author fixing the problem. The last update to the module was over three years ago.
Optimising for fewest key strokes only makes sense transmitting to Pluto or beyond
In Section
Seekers of Perl Wisdom