def read(*parts):
    """
    Build an absolute path from *parts* and and return the contents of the
    resulting file.  Assume UTF-8 encoding.
    """
    with codecs.open(os.path.join(HERE, *parts), "rb", "utf-8") as f:
        return f.read()
def dec_r(self, ind):
        r, c = self.row_col(ind)
        r -= 1
        if r < 0:
            r = self.nr - 1
        if r == (self.nr - 1) and c == (self.nc - 1):
            r = self.nr - 2
        return self.indx(r, c)