diff -r d6501421b86b -r 4ae151db1bd9 Include/object.h
--- a/Include/object.h	Wed Apr 16 18:33:39 2014 +0200
+++ b/Include/object.h	Wed Apr 16 19:11:10 2014 -0400
@@ -508,6 +508,7 @@
 PyAPI_FUNC(void) _PyObject_Dump(PyObject *);
 #endif
 PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyObject_Repr(PyObject *);
+PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyObject_SafeRepr(PyObject *);
 PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyObject_Str(PyObject *);
 PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyObject_ASCII(PyObject *);
 PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyObject_Bytes(PyObject *);
diff -r d6501421b86b -r 4ae151db1bd9 Objects/object.c
--- a/Objects/object.c	Wed Apr 16 18:33:39 2014 +0200
+++ b/Objects/object.c	Wed Apr 16 19:11:10 2014 -0400
@@ -862,6 +862,7 @@
 PyObject_GetAttr(PyObject *v, PyObject *name)
 {
     PyTypeObject *tp = Py_TYPE(v);
+    PyObject *repr = NULL;
 
     if (!PyUnicode_Check(name)) {
         PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError,
@@ -877,9 +878,16 @@
             return NULL;
         return (*tp->tp_getattr)(v, name_str);
     }
+
+    repr = PyObject_SafeRepr(v);
+    if (repr == NULL)
+        return NULL;
+
     PyErr_Format(PyExc_AttributeError,
-                 "'%.50s' object has no attribute '%U'",
-                 tp->tp_name, name);
+                 "%U has no attribute '%U'",
+                 repr, name);
+    Py_DECREF(repr);
+
     return NULL;
 }
 
@@ -899,6 +907,7 @@
 PyObject_SetAttr(PyObject *v, PyObject *name, PyObject *value)
 {
     PyTypeObject *tp = Py_TYPE(v);
+    PyObject *repr;
     int err;
 
     if (!PyUnicode_Check(name)) {
@@ -925,23 +934,52 @@
     }
     Py_DECREF(name);
     assert(name->ob_refcnt >= 1);
+
+    repr = PyObject_SafeRepr(v);
+    if (repr == NULL)
+        return -1;
+
     if (tp->tp_getattr == NULL && tp->tp_getattro == NULL)
         PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError,
-                     "'%.100s' object has no attributes "
+                     "%U has no attributes "
                      "(%s .%U)",
-                     tp->tp_name,
+                     repr,
                      value==NULL ? "del" : "assign to",
                      name);
+
     else
         PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError,
-                     "'%.100s' object has only read-only attributes "
+                     "%U has only read-only attributes "
                      "(%s .%U)",
-                     tp->tp_name,
+                     repr,
                      value==NULL ? "del" : "assign to",
                      name);
+    Py_DECREF(repr);
+
     return -1;
 }
 
+PyObject*
+PyObject_SafeRepr(PyObject *obj)
+{
+    PyTypeObject *tp = Py_TYPE(obj);
+    PyObject *repr = NULL;
+    int enter;
+
+    assert(obj);
+
+    if (!Py_ReprEnter(obj)) {
+        repr = PyObject_Repr(obj);
+        Py_ReprLeave(obj);
+    }
+
+    if (repr == NULL) {
+        repr = PyUnicode_FromFormat("<%.100s object>", tp->tp_name);
+    }
+
+    return repr;
+}
+
 /* Helper to get a pointer to an object's __dict__ slot, if any */
 
 PyObject **
@@ -1018,6 +1056,7 @@
     descrgetfunc f;
     Py_ssize_t dictoffset;
     PyObject **dictptr;
+    PyObject *repr = NULL;
 
     if (!PyUnicode_Check(name)){
         PyErr_Format(PyExc_TypeError,
@@ -1088,9 +1127,14 @@
         goto done;
     }
 
+    repr = PyObject_SafeRepr(obj);
+    if (repr == NULL)
+        goto done;
     PyErr_Format(PyExc_AttributeError,
-                 "'%.50s' object has no attribute '%U'",
-                 tp->tp_name, name);
+                 "%U has no attribute '%U'",
+                 repr, name);
+    Py_DECREF(repr);
+
   done:
     Py_XDECREF(descr);
     Py_DECREF(name);
@@ -1111,6 +1155,7 @@
     PyObject *descr;
     descrsetfunc f;
     PyObject **dictptr;
+    PyObject *repr = NULL;
     int res = -1;
 
     if (!PyUnicode_Check(name)){
@@ -1163,16 +1208,22 @@
         goto done;
     }
 
+    repr = PyObject_SafeRepr(obj);
+    if (repr == NULL)
+        goto done;
+
     if (descr == NULL) {
         PyErr_Format(PyExc_AttributeError,
-                     "'%.100s' object has no attribute '%U'",
-                     tp->tp_name, name);
+                     "%U has no attribute '%U'",
+                     repr, name);
         goto done;
     }
 
     PyErr_Format(PyExc_AttributeError,
-                 "'%.50s' object attribute '%U' is read-only",
-                 tp->tp_name, name);
+                 "%U attribute '%U' is read-only",
+                 repr, name);
+    Py_DECREF(repr);
+
   done:
     Py_XDECREF(descr);
     Py_DECREF(name);
diff -r d6501421b86b -r 4ae151db1bd9 repr.py
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/repr.py	Wed Apr 16 19:11:10 2014 -0400
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+import _pyio
+
+
+x = _pyio.TextIOWrapper()
+
+repr(x)
+
+
+class Foo(object):
+
+    x = 10
+
+    # def __repr__(self):
+    #     # self.f
+    #     return '<%r>' % self
+
+
+f = Foo()
+#print(repr(f))
+
+f.a