diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ceeb2992
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+simplejson
+==========
+
+simplejson is a simple, fast, extensible JSON encoder/decoder for Python 
+
+This branch is for use in extreme situations where you cannot upgrade from Python 2.2, expect to get your hands dirty!
+
+There is no release of this egg, you will rather want to check it out:
+
+    git clone https://github.com/simplejson/simplejson.git --branch python2.2
+
+Add install it in your old python:
+
+    python2.2 setup.py install
+
+Any features missing from the mainline version need to be coded in by hand. 
+I hope this is useful, it should be better than starting from scratch!
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 21b0be01..1da0d16b 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,9 +1,15 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
+import sys
+if sys.version_info < (2, 3):
+    from distutils.core import setup
 
-import ez_setup
-ez_setup.use_setuptools()
+    def find_packages(exclude=None):
+        return ['simplejson', 'simplejson.tests']
+else:
+    import ez_setup
+    ez_setup.use_setuptools()
 
-from setuptools import setup, find_packages
+    from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
 VERSION = '1.1'
 DESCRIPTION = "Simple, fast, extensible JSON encoder/decoder for Python"
diff --git a/simplejson/decoder.py b/simplejson/decoder.py
index cd8ef630..bfffa723 100644
--- a/simplejson/decoder.py
+++ b/simplejson/decoder.py
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ def _floatconstants():
     import sys
     _BYTES = '7FF80000000000007FF0000000000000'.decode('hex')
     if sys.byteorder != 'big':
-        _BYTES = _BYTES[:8][::-1] + _BYTES[8:][::-1]
+        # slicing not available in Python 2.2
+        #_BYTES = _BYTES[:8][::-1] + _BYTES[8:][::-1]
+        _BYTES = '000000000000f87f000000000000f07f'.decode('hex')
     nan, inf = struct.unpack('dd', _BYTES)
     return nan, inf, -inf
 
diff --git a/simplejson/encoder.py b/simplejson/encoder.py
index 5b4b7cd3..3a06f905 100644
--- a/simplejson/encoder.py
+++ b/simplejson/encoder.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """
 Implementation of JSONEncoder
 """
+from __future__ import generators
 import re
 
 # this should match any kind of infinity
@@ -158,7 +159,7 @@ def _iterencode_dict(self, dct, markers=None):
             encoder = encode_basestring
         allow_nan = self.allow_nan
         for key, value in dct.iteritems():
-            if isinstance(key, basestring):
+            if isinstance(key, (str, unicode)):
                 pass
             # JavaScript is weakly typed for these, so it makes sense to
             # also allow them.  Many encoders seem to do something like this.
@@ -189,7 +190,7 @@ def _iterencode_dict(self, dct, markers=None):
             del markers[markerid]
 
     def _iterencode(self, o, markers=None):
-        if isinstance(o, basestring):
+        if isinstance(o, (str, unicode)):
             if self.ensure_ascii:
                 encoder = encode_basestring_ascii
             else:
diff --git a/simplejson/scanner.py b/simplejson/scanner.py
index 95d3f2bb..fc88885c 100644
--- a/simplejson/scanner.py
+++ b/simplejson/scanner.py
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 """
 Iterator based sre token scanner
 """
+from __future__ import generators
+import __builtin__
+__builtin__.enumerate = lambda seq:  zip(xrange(len(seq)), seq)
+
 import sre_parse, sre_compile, sre_constants
 from sre_constants import BRANCH, SUBPATTERN
 from sre import VERBOSE, MULTILINE, DOTALL