SF patch 1094011: Docs for file() vs open().
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex b/Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex
index 95ca9eb..6b853f3 100644
--- a/Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex
+++ b/Doc/lib/libfuncs.tex
@@ -416,9 +416,12 @@
after any I/O has been performed, and there's no reliable way to
determine whether this is the case.}
- The \function{file()} constructor is new in Python 2.2. The previous
- spelling, \function{open()}, is retained for compatibility, and is an
- alias for \function{file()}.
+ The \function{file()} constructor is new in Python 2.2 and is an
+ alias for \function{open()}. Both spellings are equivalent. The
+ intent is for \function{open()} to continue to be preferred for use
+ as a factory function which returns a new \class{file} object. The
+ spelling, \class{file} is more suited to type testing (for example,
+ writing \samp{isinstance(f, file)}).
\end{funcdesc}
\begin{funcdesc}{filter}{function, list}