I'm new to Haskell and I'm trying to use a pure SHA1 implementation in my app (Data.Digest.Pure.SHA) with a JSON library (AttoJSON). AttoJSON uses Data.ByteString.Char8 bytestrings, SHA uses Data.ByteString.Lazy bytestrings, and some of my string literals in my app are [Char]. This article seems to indicate this is something still being worked out in the Haskell language/Prelude: http // hackage.haskell.org/trac/haskell-prime/wiki/CharAsUnicode And this one lists a few libraries but its a couple years old: http //blog.kfish.org/2007/10/survey-haskell-unicode-support.html [Links broken because SO doesn't trust me -- whatever...] What is the current best way to convert between these types, and what are some of the tradeoffs? I don't want to pick something that is obsolete... Thanks!