diff --git a/src/main/java/freemarker/template/Configuration.java b/src/main/java/freemarker/template/Configuration.java
index 82b89d3..2558bfb 100644
--- a/src/main/java/freemarker/template/Configuration.java
+++ b/src/main/java/freemarker/template/Configuration.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 import java.io.Writer;
 import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
 import java.net.URLConnection;
+import java.text.Collator;
 import java.text.DecimalFormat;
 import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -976,6 +977,21 @@
      *       </li>
      *     </ul>
      *   </li>
+     *   <li>
+     *       <p>
+     *       2.3.33 (or higher):
+     *       <ul>
+     *           <li><p>Comparing string is now way faster. If your template does lot of string comparisons, this can
+     *           mean very significant speedup. We now use a simpler way of comparing strings, and because templates
+     *           were only ever allowed equality comparisons between strings (not less-than, or greater-than), it's very
+     *           unlikely to change the behavior of your templates. (Technically, what changes is that instead of using
+     *           Java's localized {@link Collator}-s, we switch to a simple binary comparison after UNICODE NFKC
+     *           normalization. So, in theory it's possible that for some locales two different but similarly looking
+     *           characters were treated as equal by the collator, but will count as different now. But it's very
+     *           unlikely that anyone wanted to depend on such fragile logic anyway. Note again that we still do UNICODE
+     *           normalization, so combining characters won't break your comparison.)</p></li>
+     *       </ul>
+     *   </li>
      * </ul>
      * 
      * @throws IllegalArgumentException
diff --git a/src/manual/en_US/book.xml b/src/manual/en_US/book.xml
index ab7368c..c1bf77c 100644
--- a/src/manual/en_US/book.xml
+++ b/src/manual/en_US/book.xml
@@ -30070,7 +30070,25 @@
 
           <itemizedlist>
             <listitem>
-              <para>[TODO]</para>
+              <para><link
+              xlink:href="https://github.com/apache/freemarker/pull/87">GitHub
+              PR 87</link> Comparing string is now way faster, if the <link
+              linkend="pgui_config_incompatible_improvements_how_to_set"><literal>incompatible_improvements</literal>
+              setting</link> is at least 2.3.33. If your template does lot of
+              string comparisons, this can mean very significant speedup. With
+              this enabled, we use a simpler way of comparing strings, and
+              because templates were only ever allowed equality comparisons
+              between strings (not less-than, or greater-than), it's very
+              unlikely to change the behavior of your templates. (Technically,
+              what changes is that instead of using Java's localized
+              <literal>Collator</literal>-s, we switch to a simple binary
+              comparison after UNICODE NFKC normalization. So, in theory it's
+              possible that for some locales two different but similarly
+              looking characters were treated as equal by the collator, but
+              will count as different now. But it's very unlikely that anyone
+              wanted to depend on such fragile logic anyway. Note again that
+              we still do UNICODE normalization, so combining characters won't
+              break your comparison.)</para>
             </listitem>
           </itemizedlist>
         </section>
diff --git a/src/test/resources/freemarker/test/templatesuite/expected/comparisons.txt b/src/test/resources/freemarker/test/templatesuite/expected/comparisons.txt
index 8d9d372..149fc95 100644
--- a/src/test/resources/freemarker/test/templatesuite/expected/comparisons.txt
+++ b/src/test/resources/freemarker/test/templatesuite/expected/comparisons.txt
@@ -88,6 +88,5 @@
    <p>Item is: 12</p>
    <p>Item is greater than two.</p>
    <p>Item is greater than or equal to ten.</p>
-
 </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/src/test/resources/freemarker/test/templatesuite/templates/comparisons.ftl b/src/test/resources/freemarker/test/templatesuite/templates/comparisons.ftl
index 3889765..da9d45e 100644
--- a/src/test/resources/freemarker/test/templatesuite/templates/comparisons.ftl
+++ b/src/test/resources/freemarker/test/templatesuite/templates/comparisons.ftl
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@
    <p>Item is greater than or equal to ten.</p>
    </#if>
 </#foreach>
+<@noOutput>
 
 <#-- Signum-based optimization test, all 9 permutations: -->
 <#-- 1 -->
@@ -214,5 +215,26 @@
 <@assert test= (p3 >= m3) />
 <@assert test= !(p3 < m3) />
 <@assert test= !(p3 <= m3) />
+
+<#-- String comparison: -->
+<#assign s = 'a'>
+<@assert test= '' == '' />
+<@assert test= 'a' == 'a' />
+<@assert test= s == 'a' />
+<@assert test= s + 'b' == 'ab' />
+<@assert test= 'á' == 'a\x0301' />
+<@assert test= 'a\x0301' == 'á'/>
+<@assert test= 'a' != 'A' />
+<@assert test= s != 'A' />
+<@assert test= 'A' != 'a' />
+<@assert test= '' != 'a' />
+<@assert test= 'a' != '' />
+<@assert test= 'ab' != 'ac' />
+<@assertFails message="Can't use operator \"<\" on string values.">${s < s}</@>
+<@assertFails message="Can't use operator \">\" on string values.">${s > s}</@>
+<@assertFails message="Can't use operator \"<=\" on string values.">${s <= s}</@>
+<@assertFails message="Can't use operator \">=\" on string values.">${(s >= s)}</@>
+
+</@noOutput>
 </body>
 </html>