Add to basic conversion function between str and bytes

python/orgasm/utils/__init__.py

 from ._progress import progressBar
+
+def str2bytes(string):
+    """
+    Short cut to convert ascii encoded python string (str) to bytes 
+    which can be easily converted to C-strings. 
+    
+        @param string: the python string to be converted.
+        @type string: str
+        @return a transcoded string
+        @rtype: bytes 
+    """
+    return string.encode('ascii')
+
+def bytes2str( string):
+    """
+    Short cut to convert bytes (C-strings) to ascii encoded python string (str).
+    
+        @param string: the binary (C-string) string to be converted.
+        @type string: bytes
+        @return an ascii transcoded string
+        @rtype: str 
+    """
+    return string.decode('ascii')
+