The byte swapping in numpy is clearly a misfeature when applied to Unicode. I don't think Python should support that, and I can't imagine anybody is using this for a purpose that couldn't also be achieved in a better way. Not sure why you are submitting these patches here - consider this one rejected.

I'm also not sure why you posted the numpy patch here; we cannot process it in any meaningful way. If you just need to find a place in the web to post it, please use wiki.python.org.

In general, I'm (personally) quite opposed to using the tracker for work-in-progress. Tracker issues should be actionable by core committer (reject, commit, request further changes). If the author is aware that it is not ready for review yet, it shouldn't go into the tracker.

If you primarily wanted to report these incompatibilies: that's appreciated. I can add them to

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0393/#deprecations-removals-and-incompatibilities

I don't think anything can be done about this: any C extension type subclassing the Unicode type needs to be reviewed; I don't think any reasonable backwards compatibility can be applied. This is unfortunate, but without a good solution.

Likewise, code that mutates what is designed to be an immutable object is prone to break. I have no regrets about this breakage.