--- configure.ac	1 Aug 2005 09:54:56 -0000	1.37
+++ configure.ac	15 Aug 2005 18:22:36 -0000
@@ -2063,6 +2063,37 @@ int ptsname();], ,
    fi
 fi
 
+dnl ---------------------
+dnl multibyte ZLE support
+dnl ---------------------
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(multibyte,
+[  --enable-multibyte         support multibyte chars in the zsh line editor],
+[zsh_cv_c_zle_unicode_support=$enableval],
+[AC_CACHE_CHECK(if the system adequately supports multibyte chars,
+ zsh_cv_c_zle_unicode_support,
+  [AC_TRY_COMPILE([
+#ifdef HAVE_LOCALE_H
+# include <locale.h>
+#endif
+   ], [
+int main() {
+#if defined(HAVE_WCHAR_H) && defined(HAVE_WCTOMB) \
+ && defined(HAVE_MBRTOWC) && defined(HAVE_WCRTOMB) \
+ && defined (__STDC_ISO_10646__)
+    return 0;
+#else
+# error Not supported.
+#endif
+}
+  ],
+    zsh_cv_c_zle_unicode_support=yes,
+    zsh_cv_c_zle_unicode_support=no)])
+])
+AH_TEMPLATE([ZLE_UNICODE_SUPPORT],
+[Define to 1 if you want unicode support in the line editor.])
+if test $zsh_cv_c_zle_unicode_support = yes; then
+  AC_DEFINE(ZLE_UNICODE_SUPPORT)
+fi
 
 dnl ---------------
 dnl dynamic loading
--- Src/system.h	15 Aug 2005 10:01:48 -0000	1.33
+++ Src/system.h	15 Aug 2005 18:22:36 -0000
@@ -692,21 +692,17 @@ extern short ospeed;
 #endif
 
 /*
- * This is a subset of ZLE_UNICODE_SUPPORT.  It is not all that likely
- * that only the subset is supported, however it's easy to make the
- * \u and \U escape sequences work with just the following.
+ * The ZLE_UNICODE_SUPPORT configure-define specifies that we want to enable
+ * complete Unicode conversion between wide characters and multibyte strings.
  */
-#if defined(HAVE_WCHAR_H) && defined(HAVE_WCTOMB) && defined (__STDC_ISO_10646__)
-# include <wchar.h>
-# include <wctype.h>
-
+#if defined ZLE_UNICODE_SUPPORT \
+ || (defined HAVE_WCHAR_H && defined HAVE_WCTOMB && defined __STDC_ISO_10646__)
 /*
- * More stringent requirements to enable complete Unicode conversion
- * between wide characters and multibyte strings.
+ * If ZLE_UNICODE_SUPPORT is not defined, these includes provide a subset of
+ * Unicode support that makes the \u and \U printf escape sequences work.
  */
-#if defined(HAVE_MBRTOWC) && defined(HAVE_WCRTOMB)
-#define ZLE_UNICODE_SUPPORT	1
-#endif
+# include <wchar.h>
+# include <wctype.h>
 #else
 # ifdef HAVE_LANGINFO_H
 #   include <langinfo.h>