Not dead, just pining for the fjords.  The two versions of the patch as submitted need some work before being ready for review. One issue is that the patches were originally applied to earlier snapshots of IDLE, so some subsequent changes have been reverted in the patches.  Also the patches contains a collection of mostly disparate features and changes: some appear to be straightforwardly compatible while other parts appeared to change existing behavior and may need to be discussed.  Rather than troubling Bruce again, I'd be happy to refresh them and perhaps split them up into more manageable pieces.  I'll try to find some time to do so in the near future.