diff --git a/build/Makefile.in b/build/Makefile.in
index 7ae862f8dc7..83ea62ab333 100644
--- a/build/Makefile.in
+++ b/build/Makefile.in
@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ PMC_SOURCES = \
   $(PMC_DIR)/perl6scalar.pmc $(PMC_DIR)/mutablevar.pmc \
   $(PMC_DIR)/perl6multisub.pmc $(PMC_DIR)/p6invocation.pmc \
   $(PMC_DIR)/p6opaque.pmc $(PMC_DIR)/p6role.pmc \
-  $(PMC_DIR)/p6lowlevelsig.pmc
+  $(PMC_DIR)/p6lowlevelsig.pmc $(PMC_DIR)/byteview.pmc
 
 OPS_SOURCE   = perl6.ops
 
diff --git a/src/core/Buf.pm b/src/core/Buf.pm
index de9530ffddd..50155546b76 100644
--- a/src/core/Buf.pm
+++ b/src/core/Buf.pm
@@ -1,14 +1,10 @@
 role Buf[::T = Int] does Stringy {
-    has @.contents;
+    has T @.contents;
 
     multi method new(@contents) {
         self.bless(*, :contents(@contents.list));
     }
 
-    multi method new(*@contents) {
-        self.bless(*, :contents(@contents.list));
-    }
-
     multi method decode($encoding = 'UTF-8') {
         my @contents = @.contents;
         my $str = ~Q:PIR {
diff --git a/src/core/Str.pm b/src/core/Str.pm
index 7f0bf8eaf7f..8bd1caab1ba 100644
--- a/src/core/Str.pm
+++ b/src/core/Str.pm
@@ -23,19 +23,19 @@ augment class Str does Stringy {
     # XXX: We have no $?ENC or $?NF compile-time constants yet.
     multi method encode($encoding = 'UTF-8', $nf = '') {
         my @bytes = Q:PIR {
-            .local int bin_coding, i, max, byte
-            .local string bin_string
-            .local pmc it, result
+            .local int i, max, byte
+            .local pmc byteview, it, result
             $P0 = find_lex 'self'
             $S0 = $P0
-            bin_coding = find_encoding 'fixed_8'
-            bin_string = trans_encoding $S0, bin_coding
+            byteview = new ['ByteView']
+            byteview = $S0
+
             result = new ['Parcel']
             i = 0
-            max = length bin_string
+            max = elements byteview
           bytes_loop:
             if i >= max goto bytes_done
-            byte = ord bin_string, i
+            byte = byteview[i]
             push result, byte
             inc i
             goto bytes_loop
diff --git a/src/pmc/byteview.pmc b/src/pmc/byteview.pmc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ea6f53597f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/pmc/byteview.pmc
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+/*
+$Id$
+Copyright (C) 2010, The Perl Foundation.
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+src/pmc/byteview.pmc - PMC providing a byte view of a string
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+The ByteView PMC provides a byte view of a string. It lazily just looks at the
+bytes of the string if it is only used in a readonly way; if anybody tries to
+set a value, however, it will then make a mutable copy that it can work with,
+thus not affecting the original Parrot STRING* (since those are immutable, plus
+avoiding action at a distance is a Good Thing).
+
+=head2 Methods
+
+=cut
+
+*/
+
+#include "parrot/parrot.h"
+
+pmclass ByteView dynpmc group perl6_group auto_attrs {
+    ATTR STRING *the_string;
+    ATTR unsigned char *bytes;
+    ATTR INTVAL length;
+
+    VTABLE void init() {
+        /* Need custom mark. */
+        PObj_custom_mark_SET(SELF);
+    }
+
+    VTABLE void mark() {
+        STRING *the_string;
+        GET_ATTR_the_string(INTERP, SELF, the_string);
+        if (the_string)
+            Parrot_gc_mark_STRING_alive(INTERP, the_string);
+    }
+
+    VTABLE INTVAL elements() {
+        STRING *the_string;
+        GET_ATTR_the_string(INTERP, SELF, the_string);
+        if (the_string) {
+            return the_string->bufused;
+        }
+        else {
+            INTVAL length;
+            GET_ATTR_length(INTERP, SELF, length);
+            return length;
+        }
+    }
+
+    VTABLE void set_string_native(STRING *new_string) {
+        /* Put the string in place and invalidate any byte array we may have. */
+        SET_ATTR_the_string(INTERP, SELF, new_string);
+        SET_ATTR_bytes(INTERP, SELF, NULL);
+        SET_ATTR_length(INTERP, SELF, 0);
+    }
+
+    VTABLE INTVAL get_integer_keyed_int(INTVAL key) {
+        STRING *the_string;
+        GET_ATTR_the_string(INTERP, SELF, the_string);
+        if (the_string) {
+            /* We're looking into the string. */
+            if (key < the_string->bufused)
+                return (INTVAL)(unsigned char)the_string->strstart[key];
+        }
+        else {
+            /* Need to look at our underlying byte array instead. */
+            unsigned char *bytes;
+            INTVAL length;
+            GET_ATTR_bytes(INTERP, SELF, bytes);
+            GET_ATTR_length(INTERP, SELF, length);
+            if (bytes && key < length)
+                return (INTVAL)bytes[key];
+        }
+        return 0;
+    }
+}
+
+
+/*
+ * Local variables:
+ *   c-file-style: "parrot"
+ * End:
+ * vim: expandtab shiftwidth=4:
+ */
+
diff --git a/t/spectest.data b/t/spectest.data
index 1217f5bd0fd..85e367dd8fd 100644
--- a/t/spectest.data
+++ b/t/spectest.data
@@ -544,7 +544,7 @@ S32-str/capitalize.t                                       # icu
 S32-str/chomp.t
 S32-str/chop.t
 S32-str/comb.t                                             # icu
-# S32-str/encode.t
+S32-str/encode.t
 S32-str/flip.t
 S32-str/index.t
 S32-str/lcfirst.t                                            # icu