Here's a ping for a patch that I'd like to get in before the 5.3
branch is cut; I'm sending the ping now even though I originally sent
the patch out just under a week ago because I'll be out of the office
through next Monday.  (I'm not this pushy normally, honest.)

The reason why I want to get this into the 5.3 branch is because it
fixes a seg fault and seg faults make me unduly nervous. :-)

David Carlton
carlton@math.stanford.edu