Forward port doc updates for builtin functions.

Author: rhettinger

Doc/library/functions.rst

@@ -290,19 +290,18 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
    The resulting list is sorted alphabetically.  For example:
 
       >>> import struct
-      >>> dir()   # doctest: +SKIP
+      >>> dir()   # show the names in the module namespace
       ['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__', 'struct']
-      >>> dir(struct)   # doctest: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
+      >>> dir(struct)   # show the names in the struct module
       ['Struct', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__',
        '__package__', '_clearcache', 'calcsize', 'error', 'pack', 'pack_into',
        'unpack', 'unpack_from']
-      >>> class Foo:
-      ...     def __dir__(self):
-      ...         return ["kan", "ga", "roo"]
-      ...
-      >>> f = Foo()
-      >>> dir(f)
-      ['ga', 'kan', 'roo']
+      >>> class Shape(object):
+              def __dir__(self):
+                  return ['area', 'perimeter', 'location']
+      >>> s = Shape()
+      >>> dir(s)
+      ['area', 'perimeter', 'location']
 
    .. note::
 
@@ -333,15 +332,21 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
    :meth:`__next__` method of the iterator returned by :func:`enumerate` returns a
    tuple containing a count (from *start* which defaults to 0) and the
    corresponding value obtained from iterating over *iterable*.
-   :func:`enumerate` is useful for obtaining an indexed series: ``(0, seq[0])``,
-   ``(1, seq[1])``, ``(2, seq[2])``, .... For example:
 
-      >>> for i, season in enumerate(['Spring', 'Summer', 'Fall', 'Winter']):
-      ...     print(i, season)
-      0 Spring
-      1 Summer
-      2 Fall
-      3 Winter
+      >>> for i, season in enumerate('Spring Summer Fall Winter'.split(), start=1):
+              print(i, season)
+      1 Spring
+      2 Summer
+      3 Fall
+      4 Winter
+
+   Equivalent to::
+
+      def enumerate(sequence, start=0):
+          n = start
+          for elem in sequence:
+              yield n, elem
+              n += 1
 
 
 .. function:: eval(expression, globals=None, locals=None)
@@ -652,10 +657,10 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
 
    One useful application of the second form of :func:`iter` is to read lines of
    a file until a certain line is reached.  The following example reads a file
-   until ``"STOP"`` is reached: ::
+   until the :meth:`readline` method returns an empty string::
 
-      with open("mydata.txt") as fp:
-          for line in iter(fp.readline, "STOP"):
+      with open('mydata.txt') as fp:
+          for line in iter(fp.readline, ''):
               process_line(line)
 
 
@@ -1169,8 +1174,9 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
    It can be called either on the class (such as ``C.f()``) or on an instance (such
    as ``C().f()``).  The instance is ignored except for its class.
 
-   Static methods in Python are similar to those found in Java or C++. For a more
-   advanced concept, see :func:`classmethod` in this section.
+   Static methods in Python are similar to those found in Java or C++. Also see
+   :func:`classmethod` for a variant that is useful for creating alternate class
+   constructors.
 
    For more information on static methods, consult the documentation on the
    standard type hierarchy in :ref:`types`.
@@ -1270,6 +1276,10 @@ are always available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
    references.  The zero argument form automatically searches the stack frame
    for the class (``__class__``) and the first argument.
 
+   For practical suggestions on how to design cooperative classes using
+   :func:`super`, see `guide to using super()
+   <http://rhettinger.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/super-considered-super/>`_.
+
 
 .. function:: tuple([iterable])