whitespace?
  function isEmptyString(x : String) : Bool {
    return x == null || (x == "") || /[\n\t\r\ ]+/.replaceAll("", x) == "";
  }
  
  // remove trailing whitespace
  function removeTrailingSpaces(x : String) : String { 
    return /^[\n\t\ ]+/.replaceAll("",/[\n\t\ ]+$/.replaceAll("",x));
  }

  function words(x : String) : List<String> { 
    return /[\t\n\ ]+/.split(removeTrailingSpaces(x)); 
  }

k: String) {
      key := k + ":";
    }
    function update() {
      if(keyBase == null) {
        keyBase := /:/.replaceAll("", key)