system/options/cgi/remote-addr type

I was having some problems testing the IP address of the client in a cgi script. I was surprised to find that the datatype of system/options/cgi/remote-addr is string!. I had expected it to be a tuple! I doubt that I can claim this a bug as it the type of system/options/cgi/remote-addr doesn't seem to be documented anywhere. However, it is counter-intuitive especially as system/network/host-address returns a tuple! (IE. system/options/cgi/remote-addr = system/network/host-address always evaluates to false). Can anyone throw any light on why system/options/cgi/remote-addr is a string! and not a tuple! Regards Peter