UNICODE characters vs. BINARY

Hi,

it seems to me that it's not quite clear whether pgsql makes
a consistent difference between byte and char, and if so, if
there is any way to store a small-sized array of bytes without
going right to a BLOB. If you interface pgsql with Java/JDBC
the support of UNICODE (16 bit per char) is quite essential to
avoid surprises.

A related question is whether we could support some more
standard names for data types (e.g., BIGINT, SMALLINT, etc.)
But I'm not sure there is really any standard. I would be
willing to work a little on these data types but I'd need
someone to hint me on who else is doing stuff and, if possible,
where to look first (and what known mistakes to avoid.)

regards
-Gunther

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