one interesting way of encoding variable-length strings so that they logically all have the same size is to translate them to linked lists of bits, of which each list "terminates" in a 0 that is connected to itself - so, infinite zeroes.
a benefit of this representation is that negative integers of undefined width can also be encoded this way, by ending in a loopback 1.
strings of infinite length can all be treated as having the same size.