Since ECMA allows class texts to be written as either sequences of CHARACTER_8 of CHARACTER_32 (which although not properly specified yet, we can assume means Latin-1 or Unicode), there arises the question of to what extent the two can be mixed.

We have an Eiffel for .NET dll which is called by a VB.NET application. We need to internationalize this application. "That should be easy", I thought, "because Eiffel's STRING is basically just a wrapper for the .NET String." So we fed our Eiffel dll some UTF-8 data, which it dutifully manipulated; but the VB.NET client application received garbage. Instead of displaying beautiful Farsi characters, it spat out wingding-dingbat-like droppings. What was wrong?