The only rationale I can think of for such a thing is that maybe they're trying to accommodate the possibility of a machine built entirely around a hardware implementation of the spec, that doesn't have any other way of doing bitwise logical operations. If that's the case, then Python clearly has no need for it.

Doesn't matter. My intention for the module is to be fully compliant with the spec and all of its tests. Code written in other languages which support the spec should expect to be transferrable to Python and run exactly as they did in the original language. The module itself makes that promise: "this module should be kept in sync with the latest updates of the IBM specification as it evolves. Those updates will be treated as bug fixes (deviation from the spec is considered a compatibility, usability bug)" If I still have any say in the matter, please consider this a pronouncement. Tim, if you're listening, please chime in. Raymond