The characters that are retrieved are those characters at positions
from @start_pos up to, but not including @end_pos. If @end_pos is negative,
then the characters retrieved are those characters from @start_pos to
the end of the text.
Note that positions are specified in characters, not bytes.
Retrieves a sequence of characters.
The characters that are retrieved are those characters at positions from @start_pos up to, but not including @end_pos. If @end_pos is negative, then the characters retrieved are those characters from @start_pos to the end of the text.
Note that positions are specified in characters, not bytes.