Each type of array has its own read syntax. See section String Type , section Vector Type , and section Bit Vector Type . This is called zero-origin indexing. In principle, if you wish to have an array of text characters, you could use either a string or a vector. Strings are printed in a way that shows the contents more clearly as characters.
Strings can hold extent and text properties.
For example, you cannot insert a vector of characters into a buffer the way you can insert a string. See section Strings and Characters . See section Key Sequence Input . Bit vectors are printed in a way that shows the contents more clearly as bits. In this section, we describe the functions that accept strings, vectors, and bit vectors.