[Tutor] How to normalize/compress whitespace in a string?

[Malcolm Greene]

Any suggestions for how to normalize and compress whitespace in a
string?

By normalize I mean convert tabs and soft spaces (extended ascii code
160) to spaces.

By compress I mean replace all runs of 2 or more spaces (after the
normalization step) to a single space.

I know I can use regular expressions to accomplish the above, but
thought that might be too heavy handed.

Thank you!

Malcolm