Status of ast-branch

Jeremy:

I've been meaning to ask, but keep forgetting...

What is the status of the ast branch?  I know it's pretty
out-dated now.  How close is it to working?  Do you have
any specific tasks that need to be done?  I've reviewed
the checkins, but haven't had a chance to try out the branch.

I'm still hoping the new AST/compiler can be implemented 
for 2.3.  pychecker is pretty broken w/2.3 and it would be nice
to have pychecker[23] working with the new compiler...
and maybe even jython.  Pretty big dream right now,
especially given how little work I've done recently.

Neal