diff --git a/modules/util/Util/JSON.pm b/modules/util/Util/JSON.pm
index bf8cbb0a548b468beb3e5933f83ee08365b9da51..29c6d3df6ffa2d7e00b74ef7f707965a2651fa94 100755
--- a/modules/util/Util/JSON.pm
+++ b/modules/util/Util/JSON.pm
@@ -55,6 +55,15 @@ sub write_json_file
   my $json= new JSON;
   my $json_str= $json->allow_blessed->convert_blessed->encode($x);
 
+=begin comment
+
+  open (J, '>:utf8', $json_fnm) or die ("can not write to [$json_fnm]; caller:", join (' ', caller()));
+  syswrite (J, $json_str);
+  close (J);
+
+=end comment
+=cut
+
   write_text($json_fnm, $json_str);
 
   1;
diff --git a/modules/util/Util/Matrix.pm b/modules/util/Util/Matrix.pm
index eb06331a676f76f841fdd32adaad9a60e9081c14..98ed31bb16a88500111e33bc5eb4f31d699de6b3 100644
--- a/modules/util/Util/Matrix.pm
+++ b/modules/util/Util/Matrix.pm
@@ -204,12 +204,16 @@ sub save_as_csv
   my $eol= shift || "\n";
   my $utf8= shift || 0;
 
-  unless (open (FO, '>' . $fnm))
+  unless (open (FO, '>', $fnm))
   {
     print "ATTN: cant save as csv [$fnm]\n";
     return undef;
   }
-  binmode (FO, ':utf8') if ($utf8);
+  if ($utf8)
+  {
+    print "ATTN: binmode :utf8 [$fnm]\n";
+    binmode (FO, ':utf8');
+  }
 
   print FO join ($csv_sep, @$column_names), $eol;
   my $lines= 0;
@@ -238,7 +242,7 @@ sub save_hash_as_csv
   my $eol= shift || "\n";
   my $utf8= shift || 0;
 
-  unless (open (FO, '>' . $fnm))
+  unless (open (FO, '>', $fnm))
   {
     print "ATTN: cant save as csv [$fnm]\n";
     return undef;