Thanks. So it means that 0xDC is not in the range of a signed byte, but it gives the same 8-bit result anyway.

perl -e "print (pack('c',0xDC) eq pack('C',0xDC))"
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prints 1.

I think it's simpler just to say "\xDC", though the pack may be clearer in context, among a list of things of various lengths.

—John