Merge pull request #1509 from stevepiercy/1.3-branch

cherrypick from master, pin Sphinx to 1.2.3
Merge pull request #1511 from stevepiercy/1.3-branch

backport. closes #460, #552, which were also fixed going forward by http...
Merge pull request #1512 from stevepiercy/1.3-branch

backport. closes #460, #552
Merge pull request #1516 from stevepiercy/1.3-branch

backport. closes #460, #552