Issue #9036: Throughout the code base, Py_CHARMASK is used on 8-bit wide
signed/unsigned chars or on integers directly derived from those. In all
cases, it could be replaced by a simple cast to (unsigned char). Reasons
for the change:
a) Make the comment more explicit.
b) If char is unsigned, the cast is optimized away.
c) If char is unsigned, gcc emits spurious "array subscript
has type 'char'" warnings.
........