code: def str2lst(astr_input, astr_separator=" "):
    
    alistI = astr_input.split(astr_separator)
    alistJ = []
    for i in range(0, len(alistI)):
      alistI[i] = alistI[i].strip()
      alistI[i] = alistI[i].encode('ascii')
      if len(alistI[i]):
        alistJ.append(alistI[i])
    return alistJ
docs: Breaks a string at <astr_separator> and joins into a
    list. Steps along all list elements and strips white
    space.
  
    The list elements are explicitly ascii encoded.