Several patches for SCO platform support and other bugfixes

[Kean Johnston]

All,

After this mail, I will be sending 10 discrete patches for various
bug fixes, small improvements and updating the SCO platform support.
These patches are all against the 1.5 branch. I figure we'll iron
out any isses with these and then I'll post the ones against HEAD,
which are all almost identical (modulo the various infrastructural
changes between 1.5 and HEAD).

These were all split out into smaller patches from a single cvs
diff. Thus, the line numbers for various thunks may be off if
you try to apply them in solutation, as the line numbers may have
changed based on preceeding patches.

Each patch has a ChangeLog entry and a rationale. I did try to
subscribe to the patches mailing list but I dont know how the
list is set up. I havent received confirmation email, or
subscription may be moderated, so if you have any comments,
please include me directory on the To: line.

Many thanks go to Tim Rice for all his help with testing and
fine-tuning these patches with me.

PS. I am copyright-assignment friendly. I've had an assignment
on file with the FSF for about 8 years now.

Kean