> I'm skeptical about adding build_data support, as it's not 
> obvious what files would need conversion.

All .py files should be converted.  I can't think why a project would
use this 2to3 capability for scripts and packages, but not .py files in
data files.  pywin32 uses data files to install 'demo' scripts.

Would the motivation become clearer if we modified
Demo/distutils/test2to3 to install a README.txt and a demo .py file
(where the demo .py file should not be installed in the global 'scripts'
directory, but instead in a 'demos' sub-directory of the package)?

> Users should adjust their build_data commands to invoke
> distutils.util.run_2to3.

True - but the same justification could be used to avoid adding support
to build_scripts.  I guess the question is 'how common is it that .py
files will be included in data_files?'  My experience is that it is
common enough to warrant support (but obviously others experiences may
be different)

> I would appreciate a confirmation that this function has a useful API.

I haven't actually applied the patch and modified pywin32 to use it, but
the API certainly looks useful from reading the patch.  +1

Thanks.