Merry Christmas

OK- worked and reworked these string functions until I am blue in the
face.  Been at it for two days and am cross-eyed trying to standardize
these and make them accurate.  Every time I look I find something.
Finally decided I needed to stop being anal and let you look them over.
Do let me know if you change anything so I can re-sync properly.

Only 4 weeks before we head south!!!   :-)