I just noticed that even though Utf8StorageConverter implements the various byte[] toBytes(Obj o) methods, they are not part of the LoadCaster interface -- and therefore can't be relied on when using modular Casters, like I am trying to do for the HBaseLoader.
Since we don't want to introduce backwards-incompatible changes, I propose adding a ByteCaster interface that defines these methods, and extending Utf8StorageConverter to implement them (without actually changing the implementation at all). That way StoreFuncs that need to convert to bytes can use pluggable converters. Objections? -D
