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All the code for this is on my laptop, which is at home, so
nothing is getting checked in until Monday at the earliest.

> Michael, can you checking some of this in as separate pieces?

Rearranging that so it makes sense <wink>, yes that's
probably a good idea.

> The __module__ relaxation should go in first, and marked as
> backport candidate.

OK.  Easy.

> The __name__ fix is close, but I think it *should* be
> allowed to put dots in the name (this is actually a feature
> for old classes); instead of '.' I want a check that there
> are no \0 bytes in the string (see set_name() in
classobject.c).

OK.

> I think the restrictions on __bases__ are sufficiently
> thought out;

Do you mean INsufficiently thought out?  If so, I agree.

It also occurred to me that there's probably stuff to be
done so __subclasses__() continues to work.

> There's a bug in set_mro(): it checks PyInstance_Check()
> where it clearly means PyClass_Check().

Doh.

> Other than that I think it's good to go. 

> (Though this is the ultimate weird feature! What's the use 
> case again?)

Well, with assignment to __bases__ I don't need it anymore.

> Hoping for unit tests,

There's NO WAY I'm checking this in without them, don't worry.

When do you want this done by?  It might take a week or two.