Hi. I am using hsql-(mysql-)1.8.2 When compiled with ghc-7.6, the resulting executable does not seem to be able to read strings from the DB correctly (umlauts do "vanish") while it worked with hsql-(mysql-)1.8.1 and ghc-7.4. the mysql server says (show variables) | character_set_client | latin1 | | character_set_connection | latin1 | | character_set_database | latin1 | | character_set_filesystem | binary | | character_set_results | latin1 | | character_set_server | latin1 | | character_set_system | utf8 | hsql is using type String all over the place, while it should be ByteString? Internally, Database.HSQL.Types.SqlBind uses Foreign.C.String.peekCStringLen . Did the behaviour of this function change? hsql is quite old, but so is my application. Assuming I find the time to rewrite my code (not likely) - what DB binding should I rather be using? Thanks - J.W.