check signed<->unsigned conversions

this would be a bit cleaner without the code in intfuncs that dispatches
on Unsigned.

signed() and unsigned() are convenient for testing bit patterns in the
test suite. for now replace with assigned() and asunsigned().

uint8(x) is convenient for moving bytes around, so it remains unchecked.
we should perhaps rename this to byte(), and either eliminate uint8()
entirely, or make it checked.