docs: def bytes2NativeString(x, encoding='utf-8'):
      """
      Convert C{bytes} to a native C{str}.
  
      On Python 3 and higher, str and bytes
      are not equivalent.  In this case, decode
      the bytes, and return a native string.
  
      On Python 2 and lower, str and bytes
      are equivalent.  In this case, just
      just return the native string.
  
      @param x: a string of type C{bytes}
      @param encoding: an optional codec, default: 'utf-8'
      @return: a string of type C{str}
      """
      if isinstance(x, bytes) and str != bytes:
          return x.decode(encoding)
      return x