Backport of several functions from Python 3.0 to 2.6 including PyUnicode_FromString, PyUnicode_Format and PyLong_From/AsSsize_t. The functions are partly required for the backport of the bytearray type and _fileio module. They should also make it easier to port C to 3.0.
First chapter of the Python 3.0 io framework back port: _fileio
The next step depends on a working bytearray type which itself depends on a backport of the nwe buffer API.

and eliminate a compiler warning in floatobject.c.  There might be
a better way to go about this, but it should be good enough for now.

in case there were transient failures.  This will hopefully silence
the buildbots for this test.  As we find other tests that have a problem,
we can fix with a similar strategy assuming it is successful.  It worked
on my box in a loop for 10+ runs where it would have an exception otherwise.

whole construct away, even when an 'else' clause is present::

    while 0:
        print("no")
    else:
        print("yes")

did not generate any code at all.

Now the compiler emits the 'else' block, like it already does for 'if' statements.

Will backport.

Shorter pprint's for empty sets and frozensets.  Fix indentation of frozensets.  Add tests including two complex data structures.

to not accept float types; the result was that integer-like objects
were not accepted.

Ported from release25-maint.

Also add a missing DECREF.

from the WeakValueDictionary was slower by nearly a factor of 3.

To avoid leaks, weakref proxies for the array types are put into the
cache dict, with weakref callbacks that removes the entries when the
type goes away.

- A few crashers fixed: weakref_in_del.py (issue #1377858);
  loosing_dict_ref.py (issue #1303614, test67.py);
  borrowed_ref_[34].py (not in tracker).

Clean-up and speed-up code by accessing numerator/denominator directly.  There's no reason to enforce readonliness

(also remove an unneeded import struct from test_largefile)

I'm not sure this is the correct fix, but at least the test passes
now and should be closer to correct.

Add first-cut at an approximation function (still needs rounding tweaks).  Add continued fraction conversions.

Issue 1743, Issue 1862.

The "can't load dll" message box on Windows is suppressed while an extension is loaded by calling SetErrorMode in dynload_win.c. The error is still reported properly.