showstat(`convert/list`) ;

`convert/list` := proc(a, expected_type::identical(`+`,`*`,`^`) := NULL, {nested::truefalse := false}, $)
local i, j, dm;
   1   if expected_type <> NULL then
   2     if expected_type = `^` then
   3       if not type(a,`^`) then
   4         return [a, 1]
           end if
         elif not type(a,expected_type) then
   5       return [a]
         end if;
   6     return [op(a)]
       elif type(a,'rtable') then
   7     if rtable_num_dims(a) = 0 then
   8       return []
         elif nested then
   9       dm := [rtable_dims(a)];
  10       if nops(dm) = 1 then
  11         return [seq(a[i],i = dm[1])]
           elif nops(dm) = 2 then
  12         return [seq([seq(a[i,j],j = dm[2])],i = dm[1])]
           else
  13         return convert_rtable_to_nested_list(a,1)
           end if
         else
  14       try
  15         return [seq(i,i = ArrayTools:-Alias(a,[ArrayTools:-NumElems(a)]))]
           catch :
  16         return [seq(i,i = ArrayTools:-Reshape(a,ArrayTools:-NumElems(a)))]
           end try
         end if
       elif type(a,'array') then
  17     return convert_old_array_to_list(a,nested)
       elif type(a,'table') then
  18     if type([indices(a)],('list')(['integer'])) then
  19       return [seq(eval(a[i],1),`in`(i,{indices(a,'nolist')}))]
         else
  20       return [entries(a,'nolist')]
         end if
       elif type(a,'string') then
  21     return StringTools:-Explode(a)
       elif type(a,'procedure') then
  22     return convert(convert(a,'CompSeq'),list)
       elif type(a,('specfunc')('CompSeq')) then
  23     return op(nops(a),a)
       elif type(a,'atomic') and not type(a,'`module`') then
  24     return [a]
       else
  25     return [op(a)]
       end if
end proc