Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, I have gotten tripped up wondering whether I should be calling encode() or decode() many times. Using the str() or bytes() cons

Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, I have gotten tripped up wondering whether I should be calling encode() or decode() many times. Using the str() or bytes() constructor would be more intuitive for sure. Interesting thought on subscripting strings. It would be hard to make it fly after all these years of habits, but I see your reasoning.