diff --git a/Lib/asynchat.py b/Lib/asynchat.py
index 0e2457f..ae82cfa 100644
--- a/Lib/asynchat.py
+++ b/Lib/asynchat.py
@@ -45,12 +45,23 @@
 method) up to the terminator, and then control will be returned to
 you - by calling your self.found_terminator() method.
 """
-
-import sys
 import socket
 import asyncore
 from collections import deque
 
+def buffer(obj, start=None, stop=None):
+    # if memoryview objects gain slicing semantics,
+    # this function will change for the better
+    # memoryview used for the TypeError
+    memoryview(obj)
+    if start == None:
+        start = 0
+    if stop == None:
+        stop = len(obj)
+    x = obj[start:stop]
+    ## print("buffer type is: %s"%(type(x),))
+    return x
+
 class async_chat (asyncore.dispatcher):
     """This is an abstract class.  You must derive from this class, and add
     the two methods collect_incoming_data() and found_terminator()"""
@@ -60,20 +71,47 @@
     ac_in_buffer_size       = 4096
     ac_out_buffer_size      = 4096
 
+    # we don't want to enable the use of encoding by default, because that is a
+    # sign of an application bug that we don't want to pass silently
+
+    use_encoding            = 0
+    encoding                = 'latin1'
+
     def __init__ (self, conn=None):
+        # for string terminator matching
         self.ac_in_buffer = b''
-        self.ac_out_buffer = b''
-        self.producer_fifo = fifo()
+
+        # we use a list here rather than cStringIO for a few reasons...
+        # del lst[:] is faster than sio.truncate(0)
+        # lst = [] is faster than sio.truncate(0)
+        # cStringIO will be gaining unicode support in py3k, which
+        # will negatively affect the performance of bytes compared to
+        # a ''.join() equivalent
+        self.incoming = []
+
+        # we toss the use of the "simple producer" and replace it with
+        # a pure deque, which the original fifo was a wrapping of
+        self.producer_fifo = deque()
         asyncore.dispatcher.__init__ (self, conn)
 
     def collect_incoming_data(self, data):
         raise NotImplementedError("must be implemented in subclass")
 
+    def _collect_incoming_data(self, data):
+        self.incoming.append(data)
+
+    def _get_data(self):
+        d = b''.join(self.incoming)
+        del self.incoming[:]
+        return d
+
     def found_terminator(self):
         raise NotImplementedError("must be implemented in subclass")
 
     def set_terminator (self, term):
         "Set the input delimiter.  Can be a fixed string of any length, an integer, or None"
+        if isinstance(term, str) and self.use_encoding:
+            term = bytes(term, self.encoding)
         self.terminator = term
 
     def get_terminator (self):
@@ -92,14 +130,14 @@
             self.handle_error()
             return
 
-        if isinstance(data, str):
-            data = data.encode('ascii')
-        self.ac_in_buffer = self.ac_in_buffer + bytes(data)
+        if isinstance(data, str) and self.use_encoding:
+            data = bytes(str, self.encoding)
+        self.ac_in_buffer = self.ac_in_buffer + data
 
         # Continue to search for self.terminator in self.ac_in_buffer,
         # while calling self.collect_incoming_data.  The while loop
         # is necessary because we might read several data+terminator
-        # combos with a single recv(1024).
+        # combos with a single recv(4096).
 
         while self.ac_in_buffer:
             lb = len(self.ac_in_buffer)
@@ -108,7 +146,7 @@
                 # no terminator, collect it all
                 self.collect_incoming_data (self.ac_in_buffer)
                 self.ac_in_buffer = b''
-            elif isinstance(terminator, int) or isinstance(terminator, int):
+            elif isinstance(terminator, int):
                 # numeric terminator
                 n = terminator
                 if lb < n:
@@ -129,8 +167,6 @@
                 # 3) end of buffer does not match any prefix:
                 #    collect data
                 terminator_len = len(terminator)
-                if isinstance(terminator, str):
-                    terminator = terminator.encode('ascii')
                 index = self.ac_in_buffer.find(terminator)
                 if index != -1:
                     # we found the terminator
@@ -155,91 +191,87 @@
                         self.ac_in_buffer = b''
 
     def handle_write (self):
-        self.initiate_send ()
+        self.initiate_send()
 
     def handle_close (self):
         self.close()
 
     def push (self, data):
-        self.producer_fifo.push (simple_producer (data))
+        sabs = self.ac_out_buffer_size
+        if len(data) > sabs:
+            for i in range(0, len(data), sabs):
+                self.producer_fifo.append(data[i:i+sabs])
+        else:
+            self.producer_fifo.append(data)
         self.initiate_send()
 
     def push_with_producer (self, producer):
-        self.producer_fifo.push (producer)
+        self.producer_fifo.append(producer)
         self.initiate_send()
 
     def readable (self):
         "predicate for inclusion in the readable for select()"
-        return (len(self.ac_in_buffer) <= self.ac_in_buffer_size)
+        # cannot use the old predicate, it violates the claim of the
+        # set_terminator method.
+
+        # return (len(self.ac_in_buffer) <= self.ac_in_buffer_size)
+        return 1
 
     def writable (self):
         "predicate for inclusion in the writable for select()"
-        # return len(self.ac_out_buffer) or len(self.producer_fifo) or (not self.connected)
-        # this is about twice as fast, though not as clear.
-        return not (
-                (self.ac_out_buffer == b'') and
-                self.producer_fifo.is_empty() and
-                self.connected
-                )
+        return self.producer_fifo or (not self.connected)
 
     def close_when_done (self):
         "automatically close this channel once the outgoing queue is empty"
-        self.producer_fifo.push (None)
+        self.producer_fifo.append(None)
 
-    # refill the outgoing buffer by calling the more() method
-    # of the first producer in the queue
-    def refill_buffer (self):
-        while 1:
-            if len(self.producer_fifo):
-                p = self.producer_fifo.first()
-                # a 'None' in the producer fifo is a sentinel,
-                # telling us to close the channel.
-                if p is None:
-                    if not self.ac_out_buffer:
-                        self.producer_fifo.pop()
-                        self.close()
+    def initiate_send(self):
+        while self.producer_fifo and self.connected:
+            first = self.producer_fifo[0]
+            # handle empty string/buffer or None entry
+            if not first:
+                del self.producer_fifo[0]
+                if first is None:
+                    ## print("first is None")
+                    self.handle_close()
                     return
-                elif isinstance(p, str) or isinstance(p, bytes):
-                    if isinstance(p, str):
-                        p = p.encode('ascii')
-                    self.producer_fifo.pop()
-                    self.ac_out_buffer = self.ac_out_buffer + p
-                    return
-                data = p.more()
-                if data:
-                    if isinstance(data, str):
-                        data = data.encode('ascii')
-                    self.ac_out_buffer = self.ac_out_buffer + bytes(data)
-                    return
-                else:
-                    self.producer_fifo.pop()
-            else:
-                return
+                ## print("first is not None")
 
-    def initiate_send (self):
-        obs = self.ac_out_buffer_size
-        # try to refill the buffer
-        if (len (self.ac_out_buffer) < obs):
-            self.refill_buffer()
-
-        if self.ac_out_buffer and self.connected:
-            # try to send the buffer
+            # handle classic producer behavior
+            obs = self.ac_out_buffer_size
             try:
-                num_sent = self.send (self.ac_out_buffer[:obs])
-                if num_sent:
-                    self.ac_out_buffer = self.ac_out_buffer[num_sent:]
+                data = buffer(first, 0, obs)
+            except TypeError:
+                data = first.more()
+                if data:
+                    self.producer_fifo.appendleft(data)
+                else:
+                    del self.producer_fifo[0]
+                continue
 
-            except socket.error as why:
+            if isinstance(data, str) and self.use_encoding:
+                data = bytes(data, self.encoding)
+
+            # send the data
+            try:
+                num_sent = self.send(data)
+            except socket.error:
                 self.handle_error()
                 return
 
+            if num_sent:
+                if num_sent < len(data) or obs < len(first):
+                    self.producer_fifo[0] = first[num_sent:]
+                else:
+                    del self.producer_fifo[0]
+            # we tried to send some actual data
+            return
+
     def discard_buffers (self):
         # Emergencies only!
         self.ac_in_buffer = b''
-        self.ac_out_buffer = b''
-        while self.producer_fifo:
-            self.producer_fifo.pop()
-
+        del self.incoming[:]
+        self.producer_fifo.clear()
 
 class simple_producer: