--- a/pygpibtoolkit/gpib_utils.py	Tue May 01 00:10:23 2018 +0200
+++ b/pygpibtoolkit/gpib_utils.py	Fri May 04 01:00:59 2018 +0200
@@ -52,11 +52,9 @@
     """
     nb = s[0]
     s = s[1:nb+2]
-    r = []
-    # XXX why do we need to do this? It's not described in the manual...
-    for c in s:
-        r.append(chr(c & 0x7F))
-    return ''.join(r)
+    assert s[-1] == 0
+    s = s[:-1]
+    return ''.join(chr(c & 0x7F) for c in s)
 
 
 ###