Not an answer, but a followup comment on flatten to string and the datasocket (DS) API. It is possible to define a string type DS tag and write a flattened sting to it. Be aware that the string tag is sensitive to\00, and if \00 is present in your flattened string, expect to not receive the full flattened string from the tag read.
I presume the \00 because this is the terminator for a string in C. cheers, Alex
