In the latest 1.3.40 change log, I saw `String.encodeToByteArray` experimental API introduced there....

# announcements

[pavi2410]

In the latest 1.3.40 change log, I saw String.encodeToByteArray experimental API introduced there. And I have been using String.toByteArray since always. I want to know why there is such redundancy? What's the difference between them? (I don't think there is much or any difference at all)

[Marc Knaup]

String.toByteArray is available only on the JVM and likely uses the Java standard library internally.
String.encodeToByteArray is cross-platform and doesn't depend on Java.

[pavi2410]

Does the new function utilise the existing method on the JVM?

[Marc Knaup]

Looks like that the JVM-version still depends on Java 😮

https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin/blob/1.3.40/libraries/stdlib/jvm/src/kotlin/text/StringsJVM.kt#L208

[pavi2410]

Many thanks to you 🙏

[gildor]

Make sense, if you reuse platform implementation you do not distribute your code with stdlib, but also can reuse platform specific optimizations of JVM