Merged revisions 69576,69579-69580,69589,69619-69620,69633,69703-69704,69728-69730 via svnmerge from

svn+ssh://pythondev@svn.python.org/python/trunk

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  r69576 | georg.brandl | 2009-02-13 04:56:50 -0600 (Fri, 13 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  #1661108: note that urlsafe encoded string can contain "=".
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  r69579 | georg.brandl | 2009-02-13 05:06:59 -0600 (Fri, 13 Feb 2009) | 2 lines

  Fix warnings GCC emits where the argument of PyErr_Format is a single variable.
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  r69580 | georg.brandl | 2009-02-13 05:10:04 -0600 (Fri, 13 Feb 2009) | 2 lines

  Fix warnings GCC emits where the argument of PyErr_Format is a single variable.
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  r69589 | martin.v.loewis | 2009-02-13 14:11:34 -0600 (Fri, 13 Feb 2009) | 2 lines

  Move amd64 properties further to the top, so that they override
  the linker options correctly.
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  r69619 | benjamin.peterson | 2009-02-14 11:00:51 -0600 (Sat, 14 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  this needn't be a shebang line
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  r69620 | georg.brandl | 2009-02-14 11:01:36 -0600 (Sat, 14 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  #5179: don't leak PIPE fds when child execution fails.
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  r69633 | hirokazu.yamamoto | 2009-02-15 03:19:48 -0600 (Sun, 15 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  Fixed typo.
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  r69703 | raymond.hettinger | 2009-02-16 16:42:54 -0600 (Mon, 16 Feb 2009) | 3 lines

  Issue 5229: Documentation for super() neglects to say what super() actually does
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  r69704 | raymond.hettinger | 2009-02-16 17:00:25 -0600 (Mon, 16 Feb 2009) | 1 line

  Add explanation for super(type1, type2).
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  r69728 | georg.brandl | 2009-02-17 18:22:55 -0600 (Tue, 17 Feb 2009) | 2 lines

  #5297: fix example.
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  r69729 | georg.brandl | 2009-02-17 18:25:13 -0600 (Tue, 17 Feb 2009) | 2 lines

  #5296: sequence -> iterable.
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  r69730 | georg.brandl | 2009-02-17 18:31:36 -0600 (Tue, 17 Feb 2009) | 2 lines

  #5268: mention VMSError.
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1 files changed, 9 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/Doc/library/functions.rst b/Doc/library/functions.rst
index b5a4fb8..f9205b6 100644
--- a/Doc/library/functions.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/functions.rst
@@ -1035,16 +1035,19 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
 
 .. function:: super([type[, object-or-type]])
 
-   Return a *super* object that acts as a proxy to superclasses of *type*.
+   Return a proxy object that delegates method calls to a parent class of
+   *type*.  This is useful for accessing inherited methods that have been
+   overriden in a child class.  The search order for parent classes is
+   determined by the ``__mro__`` attribute of the *type* and can change
+   whenever the parent classes are updated.
 
    If the second argument is omitted the super object returned is unbound.  If
    the second argument is an object, ``isinstance(obj, type)`` must be true.  If
-   the second argument is a type, ``issubclass(type2, type)`` must be true.
-   Calling :func:`super` without arguments is equivalent to ``super(this_class,
-   first_arg)``.
+   the second argument is a type, ``issubclass(type2, type)`` must be true (this
+   is useful for classmethods).
 
-   There are two typical use cases for :func:`super`.  In a class hierarchy with
-   single inheritance, :func:`super` can be used to refer to parent classes without
+   There are two typical use cases for "super".  In a class hierarchy with
+   single inheritance, "super" can be used to refer to parent classes without
    naming them explicitly, thus making the code more maintainable.  This use
    closely parallels the use of "super" in other programming languages.