Issue #14783: Backport changes from 3.2.

Doc/library/functions.rst

@@ -733,7 +733,8 @@ available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
       affect the values of local and free variables used by the interpreter.
 
 
-.. function:: long([x[, base]])
+.. function:: long(x=0)
+              long(x, base=10)
 
    Convert a string or number to a long integer.  If the argument is a string, it
    must contain a possibly signed number of arbitrary size, possibly embedded in
@@ -1318,7 +1319,7 @@ available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
       Function decorator syntax added.
 
 
-.. function:: str([object])
+.. function:: str(object='')
 
    Return a string containing a nicely printable representation of an object.  For
    strings, this returns the string itself.  The difference with ``repr(object)``
@@ -1463,7 +1464,8 @@ available.  They are listed here in alphabetical order.
    .. versionadded:: 2.0
 
 
-.. function:: unicode([object[, encoding [, errors]]])
+.. function:: unicode(object='')
+              unicode(object[, encoding [, errors]])
 
    Return the Unicode string version of *object* using one of the following modes:
 

Misc/NEWS

@@ -9,6 +9,9 @@ What's New in Python 2.7.4
 Core and Builtins
 -----------------
 
+- Issue #14783: Improve int() and long() docstrings and switch docstrings for
+  unicode(), slice(), range(), and xrange() to use multi-line signatures.
+
 - Issue #16030: Fix overflow bug in computing the `repr` of an xrange object
   with large start, step or length.
 

Objects/intobject.c

@@ -1334,15 +1334,20 @@ static PyGetSetDef int_getset[] = {
 };
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(int_doc,
-"int(x[, base]) -> integer\n\
+"int(x=0) -> int or long\n\
+int(x, base=10) -> int or long\n\
 \n\
-Convert a string or number to an integer, if possible.  A floating point\n\
-argument will be truncated towards zero (this does not include a string\n\
-representation of a floating point number!)  When converting a string, use\n\
-the optional base.  It is an error to supply a base when converting a\n\
-non-string.  If base is zero, the proper base is guessed based on the\n\
-string content.  If the argument is outside the integer range a\n\
-long object will be returned instead.");
+Convert a number or string to an integer, or return 0 if no arguments\n\
+are given.  If x is floating point, the conversion truncates towards zero.\n\
+If x is outside the integer range, the function returns a long instead.\n\
+\n\
+If x is not a number or if base is given, then x must be a string or\n\
+Unicode object representing an integer literal in the given base.  The\n\
+literal can be preceded by '+' or '-' and be surrounded by whitespace.\n\
+The base defaults to 10.  Valid bases are 0 and 2-36.  Base 0 means to\n\
+interpret the base from the string as an integer literal.\n\
+>>> int('0b100', base=0)\n\
+4");
 
 static PyNumberMethods int_as_number = {
     (binaryfunc)int_add,        /*nb_add*/

Objects/longobject.c

@@ -4221,13 +4221,19 @@ static PyGetSetDef long_getset[] = {
 };
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(long_doc,
-"long(x[, base]) -> integer\n\
+"long(x=0) -> long\n\
+long(x, base=10) -> long\n\
 \n\
-Convert a string or number to a long integer, if possible.  A floating\n\
-point argument will be truncated towards zero (this does not include a\n\
-string representation of a floating point number!)  When converting a\n\
-string, use the optional base.  It is an error to supply a base when\n\
-converting a non-string.");
+Convert a number or string to a long integer, or return 0L if no arguments\n\
+are given.  If x is floating point, the conversion truncates towards zero.\n\
+\n\
+If x is not a number or if base is given, then x must be a string or\n\
+Unicode object representing an integer literal in the given base.  The\n\
+literal can be preceded by '+' or '-' and be surrounded by whitespace.\n\
+The base defaults to 10.  Valid bases are 0 and 2-36.  Base 0 means to\n\
+interpret the base from the string as an integer literal.\n\
+>>> int('0b100', base=0)\n\
+4L");
 
 static PyNumberMethods long_as_number = {
     (binaryfunc)long_add,       /*nb_add*/

Objects/rangeobject.c

@@ -104,7 +104,8 @@ range_new(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *args, PyObject *kw)
 }
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(range_doc,
-"xrange([start,] stop[, step]) -> xrange object\n\
+"xrange(stop) -> xrange object\n\
+xrange(start, stop[, step]) -> xrange object\n\
 \n\
 Like range(), but instead of returning a list, returns an object that\n\
 generates the numbers in the range on demand.  For looping, this is \n\

Objects/sliceobject.c

@@ -211,7 +211,8 @@ slice_new(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *args, PyObject *kw)
 }
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(slice_doc,
-"slice([start,] stop[, step])\n\
+"slice(stop)\n\
+slice(start, stop[, step])\n\
 \n\
 Create a slice object.  This is used for extended slicing (e.g. a[0:10:2]).");
 

Objects/stringobject.c

@@ -3799,7 +3799,7 @@ PyTypeObject PyBaseString_Type = {
 };
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(string_doc,
-"str(object) -> string\n\
+"str(object='') -> string\n\
 \n\
 Return a nice string representation of the object.\n\
 If the argument is a string, the return value is the same object.");

Objects/unicodeobject.c

@@ -8759,7 +8759,8 @@ unicode_subtype_new(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 }
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(unicode_doc,
-             "unicode(string [, encoding[, errors]]) -> object\n\
+             "unicode(object='') -> unicode object\n\
+unicode(string[, encoding[, errors]]) -> unicode object\n\
 \n\
 Create a new Unicode object from the given encoded string.\n\
 encoding defaults to the current default string encoding.\n\

Python/bltinmodule.c

@@ -2004,7 +2004,8 @@ builtin_range(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
 }
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(range_doc,
-"range([start,] stop[, step]) -> list of integers\n\
+"range(stop) -> list of integers\n\
+range(start, stop[, step]) -> list of integers\n\
 \n\
 Return a list containing an arithmetic progression of integers.\n\
 range(i, j) returns [i, i+1, i+2, ..., j-1]; start (!) defaults to 0.\n\