svoid bytesToChars_bigEndian(byte[] a, char[] b) {
  int n = l(a)/2;
  for i to n:
    b[i] = (char) (((int) a[i*2]) << 8 | ((int) a[i*2+1]) & 0xFF);
}

static char[] bytesToChars_bigEndian(byte[] a) {
  if (a == null) null;
  char[] b = new[a.length/2];
  bytesToChars_bigEndian(a, b);
  ret b;
}