diff --git a/Lib/fontTools/cffLib/specializer.py b/Lib/fontTools/cffLib/specializer.py
index 51f3e6c6f..d6915606c 100644
--- a/Lib/fontTools/cffLib/specializer.py
+++ b/Lib/fontTools/cffLib/specializer.py
@@ -5,6 +5,26 @@
 from __future__ import print_function, division, absolute_import
 from fontTools.misc.py23 import *
 
+
+def stringToProgram(string):
+	if isinstance(string, basestring):
+		string = string.split()
+	program = []
+	for token in string:
+		try:
+			token = int(token)
+		except ValueError:
+			try:
+				token = float(token)
+			except ValueError:
+				pass
+		program.append(token)
+	return program
+
+def programToString(program):
+	return ' '.join(str(x) for x in program)
+
+
 def programToCommands(program):
 	"""Takes a T2CharString program list and returns list of commands.
 	Each command is a two-tuple of commandname,arg-list.  The commandname might
@@ -53,7 +73,6 @@ def commandsToProgram(commands):
 	return program
 
 
-
 def _everyN(el, n):
 	"""Group the list el into groups of size n"""
 	if len(el) % n != 0: raise ValueError(el)
@@ -496,22 +515,13 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
 	if len(sys.argv) == 1:
 		import doctest
 		sys.exit(doctest.testmod().failed)
-	program = []
-	for token in sys.argv[1:]:
-		try:
-			token = int(token)
-		except ValueError:
-			try:
-				token = float(token)
-			except ValueError:
-				pass
-		program.append(token)
-	print("Program:"); print(program)
+	program = stringToProgram(sys.argv[1:])
+	print("Program:"); print(programToString(program))
 	commands = programToCommands(program)
 	print("Commands:"); print(commands)
 	program2 = commandsToProgram(commands)
-	print("Program from commands:"); print(program2)
+	print("Program from commands:"); print(programToString(program2))
 	assert program == program2
-	print("Generalized program:"); print(generalizeProgram(program))
-	print("Specialized program:"); print(specializeProgram(program))
+	print("Generalized program:"); print(programToString(generalizeProgram(program)))
+	print("Specialized program:"); print(programToString(specializeProgram(program)))
 
diff --git a/Tests/cffLib/specializer_test.py b/Tests/cffLib/specializer_test.py
index 3cc67d107..70603e8c3 100644
--- a/Tests/cffLib/specializer_test.py
+++ b/Tests/cffLib/specializer_test.py
@@ -1,32 +1,15 @@
 from __future__ import print_function, division, absolute_import
-from fontTools.cffLib.specializer import generalizeProgram, specializeProgram
+from fontTools.cffLib.specializer import programToString, stringToProgram, generalizeProgram, specializeProgram
 import unittest
 
 
-def charstr2program(string):
-    program = []
-    for token in string.split():
-        try:
-            token = int(token)
-        except ValueError:
-            try:
-                token = float(token)
-            except ValueError:
-                pass
-        program.append(token)
-    return program
-
-
-def program2charstr(lst):
-    return ' '.join(str(x) for x in lst)
-
 
 def get_generalized_charstr(charstr):
-    return program2charstr(generalizeProgram(charstr2program(charstr)))
+    return programToString(generalizeProgram(stringToProgram(charstr)))
 
 
 def get_specialized_charstr(charstr, **kwargs):
-    return program2charstr(specializeProgram(charstr2program(charstr), **kwargs))
+    return programToString(specializeProgram(stringToProgram(charstr), **kwargs))
 
 
 class CFFGeneralizeProgramTest(unittest.TestCase):