You cannot just mix standards without generating garbage.

And there, finally, is the source of the problem.

The situation I was describing is the attempt to index a large number of files. (Two sets of files, but let's stick to the Unicode subset for now.)

Each of those files is encoded in Unicode. Some are utf-8. Some are utf-16. Some are utf-32. And so on. Each is completely consistent. No mixing.

A single program can read each of those files in turn and load lines from them into the same named scalar (say: $line). The data in that single scalar will be "a Unicode string".

But the program cannot know a priori which flavour of Unicode it will contain. So, when talking about that variable and the strings it contains, "a Unicode string" is a simple, clear, concise, description of its contents at any given time.

No mixing; no confusion; no garbage! Just a real-world situation that must be dealt with.

If I failed ot make that situation clear to you; then a appropriate response would be to ask me to clarify my explanation.

What you chose to do was to assert: "This doesn't mean anything. Unicode is the complete standard, not a character set or encoding." which is neither an inquiry; nor helpful. Nor correct.

You made no attempt to assist me with my problem. You made no attempt to even explain why you thought what I had posted was incorrect.

You chose to simply make an incorrect and indefensible assertion, that made no attempt to explain what you thought was incorrect, much less help by correcting that "error".

So yes, you got a (I'll say it again; extremely mild) rebuke. And, I still believe correctly.

Indeed. As far as I'm concerned, this post, in its attempt to obfuscate and divert attention from the proven incorrectness and deliberate unhelpfulness of that original post, is worse.