[svn-r5124]

Purpose:
    Bug fix(#697)
Description:
    Variable-length string is not treated as string.
Solution:
    Added character set and padding as VL string's attributes.  They can be
    set and retrieved.
Platforms tested:
    Solaris 8, IRIX64 6.5 parallel, and FreeBSD.

release_docs/RELEASE.txt

@@ -114,6 +114,8 @@ Library
         conversion buffer is attempted to be read.  QAK - 3/26/02
     * Fixed bug in H5Gget_objinfo() which was not setting the 'fileno'
         of the H5G_stat_t struct.  QAK - 3/27/02
+    * Fixed bug where variable-length string type doesn't behave as string.
+
 
 Configuration
 -------------