diff --git a/application.py b/application.py
index 8985877..870b59c 100755
--- a/application.py
+++ b/application.py
@@ -758,17 +758,20 @@ class Application(object):
         l = self.x - 1
         s1 = self.error_string
         s2 = util.cleanse(util.padtrunc(s1, l))
-        self.win.addnstr(self.y-1, 0, s2, l)
+        #self.win.addnstr(self.y-1, 0, s2, l)
+        self.win.addstr(self.y-1, 0, s2)
     def draw_mini_buffer(self):
         l = self.x - 1
         b = self.mini_buffer
         s1 = self.mini_prompt + b.lines[0]
         s2 = util.padtrunc(s1, l)
-        self.win.addnstr(self.y-1, 0, s2, l)
+        #self.win.addnstr(self.y-1, 0, s2, l)
+        self.win.addstr(self.y-1, 0, s2)
 
     def draw_nothing(self):
         l = self.x - 1
-        self.win.addnstr(self.y-1, 0, util.pad('', l), l)
+        #self.win.addnstr(self.y-1, 0, util.pad('', l), l)
+        self.win.addstr(self.y-1, 0, util.pad('', l))
 
 def open_aes_file(path, nl, name=None):
     if os.path.isfile(path) or not os.path.exists(path):
diff --git a/util.py b/util.py
index e268faf..727243f 100644
--- a/util.py
+++ b/util.py
@@ -26,25 +26,9 @@ def cleanse(s):
     return s2
 
 def padtrunc(s, i, c=' '):
-    assert i >= 0
-    assert len(c) == 1
-
-    l = len(s)
-    if l < i:
-        return s + c * (i - l)
-    elif l > i:
-        return s[0:i]
-    else:
-        return s
-
+    return s.ljust(i, c)[:i]
 def pad(s, i, c=' '):
-    assert len(c) == 1
-
-    l = len(s)
-    if len(s) < i:
-        return s + c * (i - l)
-    else:
-        return s
+    return s.ljust(i, c)
 
 def count_leading_whitespace(s):
     m = regex.leading_whitespace.match(s)