The stdlib docs for package distribution and building extensions
are rather dated, and that isn't expected to change for 2.7 and
3.3.

The Python Packaging User Guide isn't complete either, but it's
already a much better road map for new users than the existing
stdlib docs.

encoding with the surrogateescape error handler, instead of decoding from the
locale encoding in strict mode. It fixes the function on Fedora 19 which is
probably the first major distribution release with a non-ASCII name. Patch
written by Toshio Kuratomi.

communicate rather than 4096 for efficiency.  A microbenchmark shows
Linux and OS X both using ~50% less cpu time this way.

the BZ2File, GzipFile and LZMAFile classes.

the bundled json module.  Replace that with a mention of it being
a version of the externally maintained simplejson module.

Patch by Vajrasky Kok.

to stdin within subprocess.Popen.communicate.  5-10% less cpu usage.

error upon client disconnection.

(grafted from c80083ad142db2939507800c755082293a87f2de)

descriptor 0, 1 or 2 is closed.
The errpipe_write fd will always be >= 3.

Patch by Daniel Urban.

causing test_multiprocessing_forkserver and test_multiprocessing_spawn
failures on head (3.4).

descriptor 0, 1 or 2 is closed.