def _printstr(self, args, call_info=None):
        """this gets all the args ready to be printed, see self._print()"""
        # unicode sandwich, everything printed should be a byte string
        s = "\n"

        for arg in args:
            #s += arg.encode('utf-8', 'pout.replace')
            s += arg

        if call_info:
            s += "({}:{})\n\n".format(self._get_path(call_info['file']), call_info['line'])

        return s