Here is my todo list for Py2.3. Feel free to comment on whether it is too late to pursue these or whether I should continue to work on them for the second beta.
1) PEP 42 lists a request to add timeout settings to the higher level net libraries. Should this still be done? In Py2.3, sockets offers a setdefaulttimeout() function that provides an indirect way of meeting the same goal.
IMO this is API design that should be done without the time pressure of a beta. I'd like you to experiment a bit with the setdefaulttimeout() approach to see if it is workable though.
2) Jack Diedrich is working on two patches for itertools:
itertools.window(iterable, n=2) --> (a0, a1), (a1, a2), (a2, a3), ...
itertools.roundrobin(*iterables) which loops over the iterables returning one element from each and then cycles back to the first until all of the iterables are exhausted: itertools.roundrobin('ab', 'cde') --> a, c, b, d, e
Both functions were discussed on comp.lang.python and have been requested by multiple users. Neither is easily implemented in terms of the existing tools. OTOH, the more tools you add, the harder it is to comprehend the toolset as a whole.
itertools is new and yours; if you're comfortable with this, I'm okay with it.
3) difflib now has functions to create a context diff or unified diff. A natural next step is to add a patch() function that applies the diff and finishes the roundtrip. It also helps fulfill the original reason for adding the context/unified diffs which was to make it easier for general python users to either create or apply patches.
Interesting. My own need is not for patching but for a three-way merge. If you could add a direct API for that, it'd be great. difflib.merge(mine, old, yours) -> new. With conflict markers a la diff3 -m -E.
4) I've had a long outstanding patch to add methods like isalpha() to string objects. The goal was to make sure that replacements exist for all the tools in the string module. The hold-up has been in making UniCode equivalents. If this is still wanted, I'll finish it up.
I'm +0 on that. --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)