bit strings - anyone working on them?

Having just used bit strings for the first time, I am now aware of some
features I consider a little odd, and was wondering if (a) they are
actively being worked on, (b) if they are not considered the way to go, and
(c) if there would be any interest in the additions/changes indicated below.

1. Length enforcement:
----------------------

select B'10' | B'1';

is currently illegal.

ISTM we should return B'11' for this. ie. build the smallest varbit that
contains the result, and return it.

2. test_bit, set_bit, or get_bit
--------------------------------

These are not implemented for the varbit data type

3. extract_bits
---------------

extract_bits(varbit bits, int from, int to) returns varbit

would seem useful.

4. Conversion routines
----------------------

Doesn't seem too unreasonable to support varbit<->numeric conversions.

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