Replace .decode method with str(bytes, "utf-8")

[tetron]

This is because some bytes-like objects (such as memoryview) don't have a "decode()" method. It appears that the preferred way to get a decoded string is to simply call the constructor with the bytes-like object and the desired encoding.

[codecov]

Codecov Report

All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests ✅

Project coverage is 83.83%. Comparing base (22fc2c2) to head (7702c4f).

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##             main    #1998   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   83.83%   83.83%           
=======================================
  Files          46       46           
  Lines        8245     8245           
  Branches     2190     2190           
=======================================
  Hits         6912     6912           
- Misses        856      857    +1     
+ Partials      477      476    -1     

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[tetron]

I guess what it is telling me is that because I added tests, but the tests are not exhaustive of all lines/branches of the newly tested functions, the % total coverage actually went down. Argh.