Per discussion at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2007-
December/075498.html, this patch changes GeneratorExit's base class 
from Exception to BaseException.

I updated the tests and documentation, but I may have missed any other 
discussion of GeneratorExit in the documentation.  Happy to update the 
patch if there is any feedback.

Can you also add a comment to ./Doc/reference/expressions.rst and update
Misc/NEWS please? The rest of the patch is looking good.

I'm not sure this change is necessary. Why don't you catch StandardError
instead of Exception? StandardError catches all Exception subtypes
except GeneratorExit, StopIteration and the various Warnings.

You make a good point. Can you take it to the mailing list, please?

The mailing list discussion continues...  in the meantime, I will 
update the patch with your suggestions.

Can you describe to me what should change in Doc/reference/
expressions.rst?  It makes sense to remove the section in the example 
that says you should never catch GeneratorExit.  Should I mention 
anything about why?

New patch...

looks good to me. Crys, can you do the honors?

Oops, some tests fail. ctypes and hotshot at least.

I take it back, that was a build error. After cleaning out the build
directory the hotshot and ctypes tests pass.

Applied in r59300 to the trunk. (This time for real. At first I
committed it together with some junk to py3k branch. :/)

Fantastic, thank you!