Index: tools/dev/pbc_to_exe.pir
===================================================================
--- tools/dev/pbc_to_exe.pir	(revision 38385)
+++ tools/dev/pbc_to_exe.pir	(working copy)
@@ -172,14 +172,48 @@
     .return(infile, cfile, objfile, exefile)
 .end
 
+# The PBC will be represented as a C string, so this sub builds a table
+# of the C representation of each ASCII character, for lookup by ordinal value.
+.sub 'generate_encoding_table'
+    # Use '\%o' for speed, or '\x%02x' for readability
+    .const string encoding_format = '\%o'
+
+    # The 'sprintf' op requires the arglist to be in an array, even when
+    # there is only one arg.
+    .local pmc one_number
+    one_number    = new 'FixedIntegerArray'
+    set one_number, 1
+
+    .local pmc coded_strings
+    coded_strings = new 'FixedStringArray'
+    set coded_strings, 256
+
+    .local int index
+    index = 0
+
+  next_index:
+    one_number[0] = index
+    $S0 = sprintf encoding_format, one_number
+    coded_strings[index] = $S0
+    inc index
+    if index < 256 goto next_index
+
+    .return (coded_strings)
+.end
+
 .sub 'generate_code'
     .param string infile
     .local pmc ifh
     ifh = open infile, 'r'
     unless ifh goto err_infile
+
+    .local pmc encoding_table
+    encoding_table = 'generate_encoding_table'()
+
     .local string codestring
     .local int size
-    codestring = "const Parrot_UInt1 program_code[] = {"
+    codestring = "const char * program_code =\n"
+    codestring .= '"'
     size = 0
 
   read_loop:
@@ -195,14 +229,15 @@
   code_loop:
     unless pos < pbclength goto code_done
     $I0 = ord pbcstring, pos
-    $S0 = $I0
+    $S0 = encoding_table[$I0]
     codestring .= $S0
-    codestring .= ','
     inc pos
     inc size
     $I0 = size % 32
     unless $I0 == 0 goto code_loop
+    codestring .= '"'
     codestring .= "\n"
+    codestring .= '"'
     goto code_loop
   code_done:
     goto read_loop
@@ -210,7 +245,8 @@
   read_done:
     close ifh
 
-    codestring .= "\n};\n\n"
+    codestring .= '"'
+    codestring .= "\n;\n\n"
     codestring .= "const int bytecode_size = "
     $S0 = size
     codestring .= $S0