The currently simplest way to get the character code of the character '9' is either "9".charCodeAt(0), which isn't even constant, or writing the number constant, e.g., 0x39. Or define a whole slew of constants as in the dart2js characters.dart library:<http://code.google.com/p/dart/source/browse/branches/bleeding_edge/dart/lib/compiler/implementation/util/characters.dart>

It would improve readability and usability a lot if there was a simple way to specify "the character code of the character _", like C and Java's '9', Ruby's ?9, Scheme's #\9 or SML's #"9".

I propose the SML syntax since it doesn't collide with any other Dart syntax, and it could allow arbitrary Dart single-character string literals, piggy-backing on known string syntax, so it's possible to write, e.g., #"\n" instead of 0x10.
It should only work as a literal, no #stringVar or multi-character strings, or other funky stuff.

I don't want a character type, just a way to create integer constants that is both readable, simple and compile-time constant.