from typing import List


def asciiRowToStrings(filename: str) -> List[str]:
    """Extract and returns a list of strings from the first row of the file.

    Args:
        filename

    Returns:
        list of string
    """
    f = open(filename, "r")
    line = f.readline()
    f.close()

    if "," in line:
        line = line.replace(",", " ")

    strings = line.split()

    return strings