[Haskell-beginners] When to use ByteString rather than [Char] ... ?

[James Fisher]

Hi,


After working through a few Haskell tutorials, I've come across numerous
recommendations to use the Data.ByteString library rather than standard
[Char], for reasons of "performance".  I'm having trouble swallowing this --
presumably the standard String is default for good reasons.  Nothing has
answered this question: in what case is it better to use [Char]?

Could anyone point me to a good resource showing the differences between how
[Char] and ByteString are implemented, and giving good a heuristic for me to
decide which is better in any one case?


Best,


James Fisher
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