Github user zentol commented on the pull request:
https://github.com/apache/incubator-flink/pull/4#issuecomment-46657696
yes, currently one bit is used to designate that another byte is coming.
(this is also what the current code in this PR does)
this means though, that if you look only at single bytes, (as this loop
would do)
```
for (int pos = 0; pos < len && (cmp = (string1[pos] - string2[pos])) == 0;
pos++);
```
you wouldnt be able to tell whether you look at a 3 or 2 byte long
character. if you want to compare on the pure serialized data bytewise, you
have to know at which position you are; since characters may end up 3 bytes
long you need 2 bits to flag the position, reducing the payload to 6 bits, into
which letters dont fit.
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