# Char type and/or improved handling Things we can already do: - Iterate code points or other code units - Split a string into a list of strings of one code point each - Merge lists of strings - Awkwardly get a code point value as an int: `"a".codePoints.read()` Things that we don't provide: - Merging a list of code units back into a string - Simple char literals - Any char/code/rune type - Code can say "if the *native character representation* is *x* do this else do that" One example of trouble: - Shaw finds that it's easier and/or runs faster to split strings into a list single-code-point strings than to use the string iterators, but this potentially creates lots of individually managed objects on some backends ## Proposals ### No special type Minimum effort proposal: - Let `'a'` be an int literal - Provide builtin support to join a list of ints representing codes into a string - Also or alternatively, some way to feed code points from any source into a string builder Maybe also: - Maybe some efficient way to get a list of code points rather than an iterator if building from an iterator is inefficient and if lists are better sometimes ### Some char type Would it help clarify things??? ### Fancier things? What else might be good?