Marc-Andre, how  do you like a function PyUnicode_Equal() instead of
PyUnicode_Compare()?

The old PyUnicode_Compare() function returns -1 for smaller value and
errors, 0 for equality and +1 for larger value. I find it confusing to
have one function that follows the old PyObject_Compare() behavior.

Instead I'm proposing PyUnicode_Equal() which returns -1 for errors, 0
for unequal and +1 for equal. The function follows the semantic of
http://docs.python.org/c-api/object.html#PyObject_RichCompareBool nicely.

About your proposal for cmp(), where should we put the method? I'm -0.5
on builtins.