[patrickas]

That is why I like the way Raku handles it.

It has distinct .chars .codes and .bytes that you can specify depending on the use case. And if you try to use .length is complains asking you to use one of the other options to clarify your intent.

  my \emoji = "\c[FACE PALM]\c[EMOJI MODIFIER FITZPATRICK TYPE-3]\c[ZERO WIDTH JOINER]\c[MALE SIGN]\c[VARIATION SELECTOR-16]";
  say emoji; #Will print the character
  say emoji.chars; # 1 because on character
  say emoji.codes; # 5 because five code points
  say emoji.encode('UTF8').bytes; # 17 because encoded utf8
  say emoji.encode('UTF16').bytes; # 14 because encoded utf16