if (unicode) {
CharArrayWriter out = new CharArrayWriter();
CharCollector cc = new CharCollector(StandardCharsets.UTF_8, out);
try {
ESeq rest = io_or_char_list.collectCharList(cc, ERT.NIL);
cc.end();
} catch (CollectingException e) {
return null;
} catch (InvalidElementException e) {
return null;
} catch (IOException e) {