The change has broken the builds, for example, http://buildbot.python.org/all/builders/AMD64%20Snow%20Leop%203.x/builds/1197.

[ 29/389] test_codecs
Assertion failed: (maxchar >= 0x100), function _PyUnicode_CheckConsistency, file Objects/unicodeobject.c, line 410.
Fatal Python error: Aborted

Current thread 0x00007fff71296cc0 (most recent call first):
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/codecs.py", line 494 in read
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/codecs.py", line 548 in readline
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/test_codecs.py", line 169 in test_readline
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/case.py", line 574 in run
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/case.py", line 622 in __call__
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/suite.py", line 125 in run
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/suite.py", line 87 in __call__
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/suite.py", line 125 in run
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/suite.py", line 87 in __call__
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/suite.py", line 125 in run
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/suite.py", line 87 in __call__
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/unittest/runner.py", line 168 in run
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/support/__init__.py", line 1685 in _run_suite
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/support/__init__.py", line 1719 in run_unittest
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/regrtest.py", line 1277 in <lambda>
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/regrtest.py", line 1278 in runtest_inner
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/regrtest.py", line 967 in runtest
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/regrtest.py", line 532 in main
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/regrtest.py", line 1565 in main_in_temp_cwd
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/regrtest.py", line 1590 in <module>
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/runpy.py", line 86 in _run_code
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/runpy.py", line 171 in _run_module_as_main
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/runpy.py", line 171, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", mod_spec)
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/__main__.py", line 3, in <module>
    regrtest.main_in_temp_cwd()
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/regrtest.py", line 1565, in main_in_temp_cwd
    main()
  File "/Users/buildbot/buildarea/3.x.murray-snowleopard/build/Lib/test/regrtest.py", line 738, in main
    raise Exception("Child error on {}: {}".format(test, result[1]))
Exception: Child error on test_codecs: Exit code -6
make: *** [buildbottest] Error 1