More trivial comment -> docstring transformations by Ka-Ping Yee,
who writes:

Here is batch 2, as a big collection of CVS context diffs.
Along with moving comments into docstrings, i've added a
couple of missing docstrings and attempted to make sure more
module docstrings begin with a one-line summary.

I did not add docstrings to the methods in profile.py for
fear of upsetting any careful optimizations there, though
i did move class documentation into class docstrings.

The convention i'm using is to leave credits/version/copyright
type of stuff in # comments, and move the rest of the descriptive
stuff about module usage into module docstrings.  Hope this is
okay.
diff --git a/Lib/filecmp.py b/Lib/filecmp.py
index 7060c99..e1a30bc 100644
--- a/Lib/filecmp.py
+++ b/Lib/filecmp.py
@@ -1,318 +1,57 @@
-"""Utilities for comparing files and directories.
+"""Compare files."""
 
-Classes:
-    dircmp
-
-Functions:
-    cmp(f1, f2, shallow=1, use_statcache=0) -> int
-    cmpfiles(a, b, common) -> ([], [], [])
-
-"""
-
-import os
-import stat
-import statcache
+import os, stat, statcache
 
 _cache = {}
 BUFSIZE=8*1024
 
-def cmp(f1, f2, shallow=1,use_statcache=0):
-    """Compare two files.
+def cmp(f1, f2, shallow=1,use_statcache=0): 
+	"""Compare two files.
 
-    Arguments:
+	Arguments:
 
-    f1 -- First file name
+	f1 -- First file name
 
-    f2 -- Second file name
+	f2 -- Second file name
 
-    shallow -- Just check stat signature (do not read the files).
-               defaults to 1.
+	shallow -- Just check stat signature (do not read the files).
+	           defaults to 1.
 
-    use_statcache -- Do not stat() each file directly: go through
-                     the statcache module for more efficiency.
+	use_statcache -- Do not stat() each file directly: go through
+	                 the statcache module for more efficiency.
 
-    Return value:
+	Return value:
 
-    integer -- 1 if the files are the same, 0 otherwise.
+	integer -- 1 if the files are the same, 0 otherwise.
 
-    This function uses a cache for past comparisons and the results,
-    with a cache invalidation mechanism relying on stale signatures.
-    Of course, if 'use_statcache' is true, this mechanism is defeated,
-    and the cache will never grow stale.
+	This function uses a cache for past comparisons and the results,
+	with a cache invalidation mechanism relying on stale signatures.
+	Of course, if 'use_statcache' is true, this mechanism is defeated,
+	and the cache will never grow stale.
 
-    """
-    stat_function = (os.stat, statcache.stat)[use_statcache]
-    s1, s2 = _sig(stat_function(f1)), _sig(stat_function(f2))
-    if s1[0]!=stat.S_IFREG or s2[0]!=stat.S_IFREG: return 0
-    if shallow and s1 == s2: return 1
-    if s1[1]!=s2[1]:         return 0
+	"""
+	stat_function = (os.stat, statcache.stat)[use_statcache]
+	s1, s2 = _sig(stat_function(f1)), _sig(stat_function(f2))
+	if s1[0]!=stat.S_IFREG or s2[0]!=stat.S_IFREG: return 0
+	if shallow and s1 == s2: return 1
+	if s1[1]!=s2[1]:         return 0
 
-    result = _cache.get((f1, f2))
-    if result and (s1, s2)==result[:2]:
-        return result[2]
-    outcome = _do_cmp(f1, f2)
-    _cache[f1, f2] = s1, s2, outcome
-    return outcome
+	result = _cache.get((f1, f2))
+	if result and (s1, s2)==result[:2]:
+		return result[2]
+	outcome = _do_cmp(f1, f2)
+	_cache[f1, f2] = s1, s2, outcome
+	return outcome
 
 def _sig(st):
-    return (stat.S_IFMT(st[stat.ST_MODE]),
-            st[stat.ST_SIZE],
-            st[stat.ST_MTIME])
+	return (stat.S_IFMT(st[stat.ST_MODE]), 
+	        st[stat.ST_SIZE], 
+	        st[stat.ST_MTIME])
 
 def _do_cmp(f1, f2):
-    bufsize = BUFSIZE
-    fp1 , fp2 = open(f1, 'rb'), open(f2, 'rb')
-    while 1:
-        b1, b2 = fp1.read(bufsize), fp2.read(bufsize)
-        if b1!=b2: return 0
-        if not b1: return 1
-
-# Directory comparison class.
-#
-class dircmp:
-    """A class that manages the comparison of 2 directories.
-
-    dircmp(a,b,ignore=None,hide=None)
-      A and B are directories.
-      IGNORE is a list of names to ignore,
-        defaults to ['RCS', 'CVS', 'tags'].
-      HIDE is a list of names to hide,
-        defaults to [os.curdir, os.pardir].
-
-    High level usage:
-      x = dircmp(dir1, dir2)
-      x.report() -> prints a report on the differences between dir1 and dir2
-       or
-      x.report_partial_closure() -> prints report on differences between dir1
-            and dir2, and reports on common immediate subdirectories.
-      x.report_full_closure() -> like report_partial_closure,
-            but fully recursive.
-
-    Attributes:
-     left_list, right_list: The files in dir1 and dir2,
-        filtered by hide and ignore.
-     common: a list of names in both dir1 and dir2.
-     left_only, right_only: names only in dir1, dir2.
-     common_dirs: subdirectories in both dir1 and dir2.
-     common_files: files in both dir1 and dir2.
-     common_funny: names in both dir1 and dir2 where the type differs between
-        dir1 and dir2, or the name is not stat-able.
-     same_files: list of identical files.
-     diff_files: list of filenames which differ.
-     funny_files: list of files which could not be compared.
-     subdirs: a dictionary of dircmp objects, keyed by names in common_dirs.
-     """
-
-    def __init__(self, a, b, ignore=None, hide=None): # Initialize
-        self.left = a
-        self.right = b
-        if hide is None:
-            self.hide = [os.curdir, os.pardir] # Names never to be shown
-        else:
-            self.hide = hide
-        if ignore is None:
-            self.ignore = ['RCS', 'CVS', 'tags'] # Names ignored in comparison
-        else:
-            self.ignore = ignore
-
-    def phase0(self): # Compare everything except common subdirectories
-        self.left_list = _filter(os.listdir(self.left),
-                                 self.hide+self.ignore)
-        self.right_list = _filter(os.listdir(self.right),
-                                  self.hide+self.ignore)
-        self.left_list.sort()
-        self.right_list.sort()
-
-    __p4_attrs = ('subdirs',)
-    __p3_attrs = ('same_files', 'diff_files', 'funny_files')
-    __p2_attrs = ('common_dirs', 'common_files', 'common_funny')
-    __p1_attrs = ('common', 'left_only', 'right_only')
-    __p0_attrs = ('left_list', 'right_list')
-
-    def __getattr__(self, attr):
-        if attr in self.__p4_attrs:
-            self.phase4()
-        elif attr in self.__p3_attrs:
-            self.phase3()
-        elif attr in self.__p2_attrs:
-            self.phase2()
-        elif attr in self.__p1_attrs:
-            self.phase1()
-        elif attr in self.__p0_attrs:
-            self.phase0()
-        else:
-            raise AttributeError, attr
-        return getattr(self, attr)
-
-    def phase1(self): # Compute common names
-        a_only, b_only = [], []
-        common = {}
-        b = {}
-        for fnm in self.right_list:
-            b[fnm] = 1
-        for x in self.left_list:
-            if b.get(x, 0):
-                common[x] = 1
-            else:
-                a_only.append(x)
-        for x in self.right_list:
-            if common.get(x, 0):
-                pass
-            else:
-                b_only.append(x)
-        self.common = common.keys()
-        self.left_only = a_only
-        self.right_only = b_only
-
-    def phase2(self): # Distinguish files, directories, funnies
-        self.common_dirs = []
-        self.common_files = []
-        self.common_funny = []
-
-        for x in self.common:
-            a_path = os.path.join(self.left, x)
-            b_path = os.path.join(self.right, x)
-
-            ok = 1
-            try:
-                a_stat = statcache.stat(a_path)
-            except os.error, why:
-                # print 'Can\'t stat', a_path, ':', why[1]
-                ok = 0
-            try:
-                b_stat = statcache.stat(b_path)
-            except os.error, why:
-                # print 'Can\'t stat', b_path, ':', why[1]
-                ok = 0
-
-            if ok:
-                a_type = stat.S_IFMT(a_stat[stat.ST_MODE])
-                b_type = stat.S_IFMT(b_stat[stat.ST_MODE])
-                if a_type <> b_type:
-                    self.common_funny.append(x)
-                elif stat.S_ISDIR(a_type):
-                    self.common_dirs.append(x)
-                elif stat.S_ISREG(a_type):
-                    self.common_files.append(x)
-                else:
-                    self.common_funny.append(x)
-            else:
-                self.common_funny.append(x)
-
-    def phase3(self): # Find out differences between common files
-        xx = cmpfiles(self.left, self.right, self.common_files)
-        self.same_files, self.diff_files, self.funny_files = xx
-
-    def phase4(self): # Find out differences between common subdirectories
-        # A new dircmp object is created for each common subdirectory,
-        # these are stored in a dictionary indexed by filename.
-        # The hide and ignore properties are inherited from the parent
-        self.subdirs = {}
-        for x in self.common_dirs:
-            a_x = os.path.join(self.left, x)
-            b_x = os.path.join(self.right, x)
-            self.subdirs[x]  = dircmp(a_x, b_x, self.ignore, self.hide)
-
-    def phase4_closure(self): # Recursively call phase4() on subdirectories
-        self.phase4()
-        for x in self.subdirs.keys():
-            self.subdirs[x].phase4_closure()
-
-    def report(self): # Print a report on the differences between a and b
-        # Output format is purposely lousy
-        print 'diff', self.left, self.right
-        if self.left_only:
-            self.left_only.sort()
-            print 'Only in', self.left, ':', self.left_only
-        if self.right_only:
-            self.right_only.sort()
-            print 'Only in', self.right, ':', self.right_only
-        if self.same_files:
-            self.same_files.sort()
-            print 'Identical files :', self.same_files
-        if self.diff_files:
-            self.diff_files.sort()
-            print 'Differing files :', self.diff_files
-        if self.funny_files:
-            self.funny_files.sort()
-            print 'Trouble with common files :', self.funny_files
-        if self.common_dirs:
-            self.common_dirs.sort()
-            print 'Common subdirectories :', self.common_dirs
-        if self.common_funny:
-            self.common_funny.sort()
-            print 'Common funny cases :', self.common_funny
-
-    def report_partial_closure(self): # Print reports on self and on subdirs
-        self.report()
-        for x in self.subdirs.keys():
-            print
-            self.subdirs[x].report()
-
-    def report_full_closure(self): # Report on self and subdirs recursively
-        self.report()
-        for x in self.subdirs.keys():
-            print
-            self.subdirs[x].report_full_closure()
-
-
-# Compare common files in two directories.
-# Return:
-#	- files that compare equal
-#	- files that compare different
-#	- funny cases (can't stat etc.)
-#
-def cmpfiles(a, b, common):
-    """Compare common files in two directories.
-
-    cmpfiles(a,b,common)
-      A and B are directory names
-      COMMON is a list of file names
-    returns a tuple of three lists:
-      files that compare equal
-      files that are different
-      filenames that aren't regular files."""
-
-    res = ([], [], [])
-    for x in common:
-        res[_cmp(os.path.join(a, x), os.path.join(b, x))].append(x)
-    return res
-
-
-# Compare two files.
-# Return:
-#	0 for equal
-#	1 for different
-#	2 for funny cases (can't stat, etc.)
-#
-def _cmp(a, b):
-    try:
-        return not abs(cmp(a, b))
-    except os.error:
-        return 2
-
-
-# Return a copy with items that occur in skip removed.
-#
-def _filter(list, skip):
-    result = []
-    for item in list:
-        if item not in skip: result.append(item)
-    return result
-
-
-# Demonstration and testing.
-#
-def demo():
-    import sys
-    import getopt
-    options, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], 'r')
-    if len(args) <> 2: raise getopt.error, 'need exactly two args'
-    dd = dircmp(args[0], args[1])
-    if ('-r', '') in options:
-        dd.report_full_closure()
-    else:
-        dd.report()
-
-if __name__ == '__main__':
-    demo()
+	bufsize = BUFSIZE
+	fp1 , fp2 = open(f1, 'rb'), open(f2, 'rb')
+	while 1:
+		b1, b2 = fp1.read(bufsize), fp2.read(bufsize)
+		if b1!=b2: return 0
+		if not b1: return 1