wrote an extension application which relies on the patch (works after 
applying patch to python 3.1.1).

it converts png images to colorized ascii-art on ansi-compatible 
terminal.  requires the patch b/c a ctype function returns a c-string w/ 
ansi-escape characters.

>>> import ctypes
>>> lib = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary("_asciiporn.so")
>>> lib.img_read(b"foo.png") // load png image
>>> lib.asc_itp(4, 16)       // ascii-rize algorithm
>>> lib.asc_str.restype = ctypes.c_char_p
>>> print( lib.asc_str() )   // prints out ansi-colorized ascii-art

hopefully, this is more motivation to commit the patch to trunk