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I agree that the zip doc needs improvement.  Confusion will 
continue until it is.  Here is my suggested rewrite:
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zip([iterable1, ...]) 

Return a list of tuples, where the i-th tuple contains the i-th 
element from each input in the same order as the inputs.  
With no arguments, return an empty list (before 2.4, a 
TypeError was raised instead.)  With a single input, return a 
list of 1-tuples.  With multiple inputs, the output length is 
that of the shorted input.  When multiple input lengths are 
equal, zip(i1, ...) is similar to map(None, i1, ...), but there is 
no padding when otherwise.  The result of zipping a volatile 
iterable with itself is undefined.  New in 2.0. 
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There you have it.  More information is about 15% fewer 
words.  The reduction came from greatly condensing the  
overwordy sentence about obsolete behavior into a 
parenthetical comment.  For comparison, here is the current 
version.
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zip( [seq1, ...]) 

This function returns a list of tuples, where the i-th tuple 
contains the i-th element from each of the argument 
sequences. The returned list is truncated in length to the 
length of the shortest argument sequence. When there are 
multiple argument sequences which are all of the same 
length, zip() is similar to map() with an initial argument of 
None. With a single sequence argument, it returns a list of 1-
tuples. With no arguments, it returns an empty list. New in 
version 2.0. 
Changed in version 2.4: Formerly, zip() required at least one 
argument and zip() raised a TypeError instead of returning 
an empty list..