- merge ben's patch with updates

diff --cc lib/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py
Simple merge

diff --cc test/requirements.py
index 07b2afb2a7ee0dac7fe9a05475bbbab82514011b,c8c9b019240773163f8b498c317e7db853f9fbb6..d1ee55e7de459ddbe07d92e620bc61c5a21ee3fd
--- 1/test/requirements.py
--- 2/test/requirements.py
+++ b/test/requirements.py
@@@ -303,8 -301,15 +303,14 @@@ class DefaultRequirements(SuiteRequirem
          """target database can persist/return an empty string with an
          unbounded text."""
  
 -        return fails_if(["oracle"],
 -                        'oracle converts empty strings to a blank space')
 +        return exclusions.open()
  
+     @property
+     def unicode_data(self):
+         return skip_if([
+             no_support("sybase", "no unicode driver support")
+             ])
+ 
      @property
      def unicode_connections(self):
          """Target driver must support some encoding of Unicode across the wire."""
@@@ -373,56 -383,7 +384,57 @@@
      def reflects_pk_names(self):
          """Target driver reflects the name of primary key constraints."""
  
-         return fails_on_everything_except('postgresql', 'oracle', 'mssql')
 -        return fails_on_everything_except('postgresql', 'oracle', 'sybase')
++        return fails_on_everything_except('postgresql', 'oracle', 'mssql',
++                    'sybase')
 +
 +    @property
 +    def datetime(self):
 +        """target dialect supports representation of Python
 +        datetime.datetime() objects."""
 +
 +        return exclusions.open()
 +
 +    @property
 +    def datetime_microseconds(self):
 +        """target dialect supports representation of Python
 +        datetime.datetime() with microsecond objects."""
 +
 +        return skip_if(['mssql', 'mysql', 'firebird', '+zxjdbc', 'oracle'])
 +
 +    @property
 +    def datetime_historic(self):
 +        """target dialect supports representation of Python
 +        datetime.datetime() objects with historic (pre 1900) values."""
 +
 +        return succeeds_if(['sqlite', 'postgresql', 'firebird'])
 +
 +    @property
 +    def date(self):
 +        """target dialect supports representation of Python
 +        datetime.date() objects."""
 +
 +        return exclusions.open()
 +
 +    @property
 +    def date_historic(self):
 +        """target dialect supports representation of Python
 +        datetime.datetime() objects with historic (pre 1900) values."""
 +
 +        return succeeds_if(['sqlite', 'postgresql', 'firebird'])
 +
 +    @property
 +    def time(self):
 +        """target dialect supports representation of Python
 +        datetime.time() objects."""
 +
 +        return skip_if(['oracle'])
 +
 +    @property
 +    def time_microseconds(self):
 +        """target dialect supports representation of Python
 +        datetime.time() with microsecond objects."""
 +
 +        return skip_if(['mssql', 'mysql', 'firebird', '+zxjdbc', 'oracle'])
  
      @property
      def python2(self):