Ann,

> We'll need a interface layer to deliver strings to clients in their
> desired character sets. No doubt that same mechanism can be
> interposed between old-style UDF's and the engine.

Does that mean that there will be new UDF API and old UDF API and the
old one will constantly convert data from UTF-8 into the expected
charset and back? Since converting charsets for each record sounds
like an overkill, doesn't it?

Roman