Recommend inspecting the errno attribute of socket.error objects,
and improve wording.
diff --git a/Doc/library/socket.rst b/Doc/library/socket.rst
index c456367..65533df 100644
--- a/Doc/library/socket.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/socket.rst
@@ -117,39 +117,44 @@
.. index:: module: errno
- This exception is raised for socket-related errors. The accompanying value is
- either a string telling what went wrong or a pair ``(errno, string)``
- representing an error returned by a system call, similar to the value
- accompanying :exc:`os.error`. See the module :mod:`errno`, which contains names
- for the error codes defined by the underlying operating system.
+ A subclass of :exc:`IOError`, this exception is raised for socket-related
+ errors. It is recommended that you inspect its ``errno`` attribute to
+ discriminate between different kinds of errors.
+
+ .. seealso::
+ The :mod:`errno` module contains symbolic names for the error codes
+ defined by the underlying operating system.
.. exception:: herror
- This exception is raised for address-related errors, i.e. for functions that use
- *h_errno* in the C API, including :func:`gethostbyname_ex` and
- :func:`gethostbyaddr`.
-
- The accompanying value is a pair ``(h_errno, string)`` representing an error
- returned by a library call. *string* represents the description of *h_errno*, as
- returned by the :c:func:`hstrerror` C function.
+ A subclass of :exc:`socket.error`, this exception is raised for
+ address-related errors, i.e. for functions that use *h_errno* in the POSIX
+ C API, including :func:`gethostbyname_ex` and :func:`gethostbyaddr`.
+ The accompanying value is a pair ``(h_errno, string)`` representing an
+ error returned by a library call. *h_errno* is a numeric value, while
+ *string* represents the description of *h_errno*, as returned by the
+ :c:func:`hstrerror` C function.
.. exception:: gaierror
- This exception is raised for address-related errors, for :func:`getaddrinfo` and
- :func:`getnameinfo`. The accompanying value is a pair ``(error, string)``
- representing an error returned by a library call. *string* represents the
- description of *error*, as returned by the :c:func:`gai_strerror` C function. The
- *error* value will match one of the :const:`EAI_\*` constants defined in this
- module.
+ A subclass of :exc:`socket.error`, this exception is raised for
+ address-related errors by :func:`getaddrinfo` and :func:`getnameinfo`.
+ The accompanying value is a pair ``(error, string)`` representing an error
+ returned by a library call. *string* represents the description of
+ *error*, as returned by the :c:func:`gai_strerror` C function. The
+ numeric *error* value will match one of the :const:`EAI_\*` constants
+ defined in this module.
.. exception:: timeout
- This exception is raised when a timeout occurs on a socket which has had
- timeouts enabled via a prior call to :meth:`~socket.settimeout`. The
- accompanying value is a string whose value is currently always "timed out".
+ A subclass of :exc:`socket.error`, this exception is raised when a timeout
+ occurs on a socket which has had timeouts enabled via a prior call to
+ :meth:`~socket.settimeout` (or implicitly through
+ :func:`~socket.setdefaulttimeout`). The accompanying value is a string
+ whose value is currently always "timed out".
.. data:: AF_UNIX