This fix looks suspect to me, especially for the maintenance branch... The "k" format was especially introduced for bitpatterns, so this fix will break any code of the form >>> if call_returning_k_object() < 0: print "error" -- Jack Jansen, <Jack.Jansen at cwi.nl>, http://www.cwi.nl/~jack If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution -- Emma Goldman