STRING * n support in StarBasic

I'm been hacking around basic/* on things related to String -> OUString...

and I found this:
void SbiRuntime::StepPAD( sal_uInt32 nOp1 )
{
    SbxVariable* p = GetTOS();
    String& s = (String&)(const String&) *p;
    if( s.Len() > nOp1 )
        s.Erase( static_cast<xub_StrLen>( nOp1 ) );
    else
        s.Expand( static_cast<xub_StrLen>( nOp1 ), ' ' );
}

the problem is that SbxVariable is essentially an union which, since

commit 4d949990ef1438fcae98262519c6af2b47e5ccf5
Author: Mikhail Voytenko <mav@openoffice.org>
Date:   Fri Aug 13 13:28:45 2010 +0200

    mib18: #163225# support long strings in basic

doe snot know String anymore but OUString.

iow the code above is very likely to break badly if executed.

otoh. that function is invoked via _PAD which itself is invoked in case of

Dim foo STRING * 100

i.e a fixed sized string, a syntax that has been dropped with VB 6.0.
(end-of-life 2005, extented eol 2008)

So the question is:

* should we try to fix the support for that (note: these fixed string
_are_ 64K limited by spec, whereas the 'normal' variable string are 2G
limited, so dropping the support for fixed string will make things
easier to get rid of xub_StrLen as uint16_t) : bonus point ignore the
old spec 64K limit and allow 2G fixed string
OR
* just ignore the * n section and make all string variable, silently
(my favored compromised)
OR
* whine on the STRING * n syntax

Norbert