the mad patcher strikes again:

-- added pickling support (only works if sre is imported)

-- fixed wordsize problems in engine
   (instead of casting literals down to the character size,
   cast characters up to the literal size (same as the code
   word size).  this prevents false hits when you're matching
   a unicode pattern against an 8-bit string. (unfortunately,
   this broke another test, but I think the test should be
   changed in this case; more on that on python-dev)

-- added sre.purge function
   (unofficial, clears the cache)
diff --git a/Modules/_sre.c b/Modules/_sre.c
index 22b6c73..268c5dd 100644
--- a/Modules/_sre.c
+++ b/Modules/_sre.c
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
  * 00-06-28 fl	fixed findall (0.9.1)
  * 00-06-29 fl	fixed split, added more scanner features (0.9.2)
  * 00-06-30 fl	tuning, fast search (0.9.3)
- * 00-06-30 fl	added assert (lookahead) primitives (0.9.4)
+ * 00-06-30 fl	added assert (lookahead) primitives, etc (0.9.4)
  *
  * Copyright (c) 1997-2000 by Secret Labs AB.  All rights reserved.
  *
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@
 }
 
 LOCAL(int)
-SRE_MEMBER(SRE_CODE* set, SRE_CHAR ch)
+SRE_MEMBER(SRE_CODE* set, SRE_CODE ch)
 {
 	/* check if character is a member of the given set */
 
@@ -356,13 +356,13 @@
 			return !ok;
 
 		case SRE_OP_LITERAL:
-			if (ch == (SRE_CHAR) set[0])
+			if (ch == set[0])
 				return ok;
 			set++;
 			break;
 
 		case SRE_OP_RANGE:
-			if ((SRE_CHAR) set[0] <= ch && ch <= (SRE_CHAR) set[1])
+			if (set[0] <= ch && ch <= set[1])
 				return ok;
 			set += 2;
 			break;
@@ -455,8 +455,8 @@
 		case SRE_OP_LITERAL:
 			/* match literal string */
 			/* args: <code> */
-			TRACE(("%8d: literal %c\n", PTR(ptr), (SRE_CHAR) pattern[0]));
-			if (ptr >= end || *ptr != (SRE_CHAR) pattern[0])
+			TRACE(("%8d: literal %c\n", PTR(ptr), pattern[0]));
+			if (ptr >= end || (SRE_CODE) ptr[0] != pattern[0])
 				goto failure;
 			pattern++;
 			ptr++;
@@ -465,8 +465,8 @@
 		case SRE_OP_NOT_LITERAL:
 			/* match anything that is not literal character */
 			/* args: <code> */
-			TRACE(("%8d: literal not %c\n", PTR(ptr), (SRE_CHAR) pattern[0]));
-			if (ptr >= end || *ptr == (SRE_CHAR) pattern[0])
+			TRACE(("%8d: literal not %c\n", PTR(ptr), pattern[0]));
+			if (ptr >= end || (SRE_CODE) ptr[0] == pattern[0])
 				goto failure;
 			pattern++;
 			ptr++;
@@ -528,7 +528,7 @@
 			break;
 
 		case SRE_OP_LITERAL_IGNORE:
-			TRACE(("%8d: literal lower(%c)\n", PTR(ptr), (SRE_CHAR) *pattern));
+			TRACE(("%8d: literal lower(%c)\n", PTR(ptr), pattern[0]));
 			if (ptr >= end ||
                 state->lower(*ptr) != state->lower(*pattern))
 				goto failure;
@@ -537,8 +537,7 @@
 			break;
 
 		case SRE_OP_NOT_LITERAL_IGNORE:
-			TRACE(("%8d: literal not lower(%c)\n", PTR(ptr),
-                   (SRE_CHAR) *pattern));
+			TRACE(("%8d: literal not lower(%c)\n", PTR(ptr), pattern[0]));
 			if (ptr >= end ||
                 state->lower(*ptr) == state->lower(*pattern))
 				goto failure;
@@ -549,7 +548,7 @@
 		case SRE_OP_IN_IGNORE:
 			TRACE(("%8d: set lower(%c)\n", PTR(ptr), *ptr));
 			if (ptr >= end
-				|| !SRE_MEMBER(pattern+1, (SRE_CHAR) state->lower(*ptr)))
+				|| !SRE_MEMBER(pattern+1, (SRE_CODE) state->lower(*ptr)))
 				goto failure;
 			pattern += pattern[0];
 			ptr++;
@@ -631,9 +630,9 @@
 
 			} else if (pattern[3] == SRE_OP_LITERAL) {
 				/* repeated literal */
-				SRE_CHAR chr = (SRE_CHAR) pattern[4];
+				SRE_CODE chr = pattern[4];
 				while (count < (int) pattern[2]) {
-					if (ptr >= end || *ptr != chr)
+					if (ptr >= end || (SRE_CODE) ptr[0] != chr)
 						break;
 					ptr++;
 					count++;
@@ -641,9 +640,9 @@
 
 			} else if (pattern[3] == SRE_OP_LITERAL_IGNORE) {
 				/* repeated literal */
-				SRE_CHAR chr = (SRE_CHAR) pattern[4];
+				SRE_CODE chr = pattern[4];
 				while (count < (int) pattern[2]) {
-					if (ptr >= end || (SRE_CHAR) state->lower(*ptr) != chr)
+					if (ptr >= end || (SRE_CODE) state->lower(*ptr) != chr)
 						break;
 					ptr++;
 					count++;
@@ -651,9 +650,9 @@
 
 			} else if (pattern[3] == SRE_OP_NOT_LITERAL) {
 				/* repeated non-literal */
-				SRE_CHAR chr = (SRE_CHAR) pattern[4];
+				SRE_CODE chr = pattern[4];
 				while (count < (int) pattern[2]) {
-					if (ptr >= end || *ptr == chr)
+					if (ptr >= end || (SRE_CODE) ptr[0] == chr)
 						break;
 					ptr++;
 					count++;
@@ -661,9 +660,9 @@
 
 			} else if (pattern[3] == SRE_OP_NOT_LITERAL_IGNORE) {
 				/* repeated non-literal */
-				SRE_CHAR chr = (SRE_CHAR) pattern[4];
+				SRE_CODE chr = pattern[4];
 				while (count < (int) pattern[2]) {
-					if (ptr >= end || (SRE_CHAR) state->lower(*ptr) == chr)
+					if (ptr >= end || (SRE_CODE) state->lower(ptr[0]) == chr)
 						break;
 					ptr++;
 					count++;
@@ -712,7 +711,7 @@
 			} else if (pattern[pattern[0]] == SRE_OP_LITERAL) {
 				/* tail starts with a literal. skip positions where
 				   the rest of the pattern cannot possibly match */
-				SRE_CHAR chr = (SRE_CHAR) pattern[pattern[0]+1];
+				SRE_CODE chr = pattern[pattern[0]+1];
 				TRACE(("%8d: tail is literal %d\n", PTR(ptr), chr));
 				for (;;) {
 					TRACE(("%8d: scan for tail match\n", PTR(ptr)));
@@ -868,7 +867,7 @@
 			TRACE(("%8d: branch\n", PTR(ptr)));
 			while (*pattern) {
 				if (pattern[1] != SRE_OP_LITERAL ||
-					(ptr < end && *ptr == (SRE_CHAR) pattern[2])) {
+					(ptr < end && (SRE_CODE) ptr[0] == pattern[2])) {
 					TRACE(("%8d: branch check\n", PTR(ptr)));
 					state->ptr = ptr;
 					i = SRE_MATCH(state, pattern + 1);
@@ -976,7 +975,7 @@
         end = state->end;
         while (ptr < end) {
             for (;;) {
-                if (*ptr != (SRE_CHAR) prefix[i]) {
+                if ((SRE_CODE) ptr[0] != prefix[i]) {
                     if (!i)
                         break;
                     else
@@ -1008,9 +1007,9 @@
 	if (pattern[0] == SRE_OP_LITERAL) {
 		/* pattern starts with a literal character.  this is used for
            short prefixes, and if fast search is disabled*/
-		SRE_CHAR chr = (SRE_CHAR) pattern[1];
+		SRE_CODE chr = pattern[1];
 		for (;;) {
-			while (ptr < end && *ptr != chr)
+			while (ptr < end && (SRE_CODE) ptr[0] != chr)
 				ptr++;
 			if (ptr == end)
 				return 0;