diff --git a/implementations/javascript/packages/core/src/encoder.ts b/implementations/javascript/packages/core/src/encoder.ts
index 888f2d5..994333d 100644
--- a/implementations/javascript/packages/core/src/encoder.ts
+++ b/implementations/javascript/packages/core/src/encoder.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ export interface EncoderPointerOptions<T> extends EncoderOptions {
     encodePointer?: (e: Encoder<T>, v: T) => void;
 }
 
-function chunkStr(bs: Uint8Array): string {
+export function asLatin1(bs: Uint8Array): string {
     return String.fromCharCode.apply(null, bs as any as number[]);
 }
 
@@ -87,12 +87,12 @@ export class Encoder<T> {
     /* Like contents(), but hands back a string containing binary data "encoded" via latin-1 */
     contentsString(): string {
         if (this.chunks.length === 0) {
-            const s = chunkStr(new Uint8Array(this.view.buffer, 0, this.index));
+            const s = asLatin1(new Uint8Array(this.view.buffer, 0, this.index));
             this.index = 0;
             return s;
         } else {
             this.rotatebuffer(4096);
-            return this.chunks.map(chunkStr).join('');
+            return this.chunks.map(asLatin1).join('');
         }
     }