diff -r 4419e2941205 Lib/pydoc.py
--- a/Lib/pydoc.py	Sun Sep 22 11:46:51 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/pydoc.py	Sun Sep 22 21:44:09 2013 +0530
@@ -64,6 +64,8 @@
 import time
 import tokenize
 import warnings
+import ast
+from token import tok_name
 from collections import deque
 from reprlib import Repr
 from traceback import extract_tb, format_exception_only
@@ -202,23 +204,28 @@
                 return True
     return False
 
-def source_synopsis(file):
-    line = file.readline()
-    while line[:1] == '#' or not line.strip():
-        line = file.readline()
-        if not line: break
-    line = line.strip()
-    if line[:4] == 'r"""': line = line[1:]
-    if line[:3] == '"""':
-        line = line[3:]
-        if line[-1:] == '\\': line = line[:-1]
-        while not line.strip():
-            line = file.readline()
-            if not line: break
-        result = line.split('"""')[0].strip()
-    else: result = None
-    return result
-
+def source_synopsis(file_):
+    if hasattr(file_, 'buffer'):
+        file_ = file_.buffer
+    elif isinstance(file_, io.StringIO):
+        try:
+            file_ = io.BytesIO(bytes(file_.read(), 'UTF-8'))
+        except:
+            pass
+    try:
+        tokens = tokenize.tokenize(file_.readline)
+    except TypeError:
+        return None
+    while True:
+        token = next(tokens)
+        token.name = tok_name[token.type]
+        if token.name not in ['COMMENT', 'NL', 'ENCODING']: 
+            break
+    if token.name == 'STRING':
+        return ast.literal_eval(token.string).split('\n')[0].strip()
+    else:
+        return None
+        
 def synopsis(filename, cache={}):
     """Get the one-line summary out of a module file."""
     mtime = os.stat(filename).st_mtime