Backported to 2.4

Made traceback unconditional, to avoid lock contention problems when logging errors occur in a custom importer (SF path #1158052).

Added optional encoding argument to file handlers. Made traceback import unconditional, to avoid lock contention problems which occur when logging from custom importers (SF patch #1158052)

Bug #1160802:  Can't build Zope on Windows w/ 2.4.1c1.

MSVCCompiler.initialize():  set self.initialized to True, as suggested
by AMK.  Else we keep growing the PATH endlessly, with each new C
extension built, until putenv() complains.

No change to NEWS because the patch that created this bug is also new
for 2.5a1 (so there's no change here to any code yet released from HEAD).

etc., had comments after the colon, and some other cases. This patch
take a simpler approach that doesn't rely on looking for a ':'. Thanks
Simon Percivall!

new builtins.

socket.gethostname() in the check for a valid return.

Also clarified docs (official and docstring) that the value from gethostname()
is returned if gethostbyaddr() doesn't do the job.

- add support for additional markup: \leq, \textbar, \textit
- add a comment about the non-support for the Euro character
(ported from release24-maint branch release 1.10.4.2)

(ported from release24-maint branch revision 1.10.4.1)

(ported from release24-maint branch revision 1.86.2.3)

of multiple fields.  This provides direct support for sorting by
multiple keys.

example

Will backport to 2.4.

Make functional.partial() more closely match the spec by emulating some useful features of regular functions:

* Made weak referencable.
* Allow attribute access so a user can set __name__, __doc__, etc.

some useful features of regular functions:

* Made weak referencable.
* Allow attribute access so a user can set __name__, __doc__, etc.

(merge from release24-maint branch).

attributes to oss_audio_device object: 'closed', 'name', and 'mode'.

stream compression; add, for symmetry reasons, r:* as a synonym of r.

``class C(): pass`` is no longer a syntax error.

leading tabs in a line when in Python mode.

Also fixed some grammatical errors in the comments.

eg. "2004-03-04" is not broken across lines.  (Merged from 2.4 branch.)

in pyexpat.GetInputContext. Will backport to 2.4.