I'm digging into the sre_parse.py at the moment and this I have all the 
changes I need for that now.  The rest of the changes I believe are in 
either sre_compile.py or more likely directly in _sre.c, so I will 
examine those files next.  I am attaching a single diff for 
expedience.  This is not an official patch, just a sample to see the 
progress I am making.  I forgot the correct format for patch files but 
I promise to get it right when I have made more progress.