> Memory is not an issue like it was back in 1991 when 
> this range was originally implemented, so we can go 
> higher and get a bigger performance boost.

Please don't do this.  Memory is still important to a lot of people.  Also, there is *very* little payoff for numbers outside the -5 to 256 range.

If we're to spend memory, we can do it in other places (like bigger freelists or somesuch).

> We should remove the documentation entries that discuss 
> non-guaranteed implementation details

FWIW, I've changed my thinking on this.  With documentation, these details are very difficult to find-out about.  Instead of removing them, they should be marked as non-guaranteed implementation specific details or they can be moved to a separate section.