Index: Doc/library/array.rst
===================================================================
--- Doc/library/array.rst	(revision 71822)
+++ Doc/library/array.rst	(working copy)
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 +-----------+----------------+-------------------+-----------------------+
 | ``'B'``   | unsigned char  | int               | 1                     |
 +-----------+----------------+-------------------+-----------------------+
-| ``'u'``   | Py_UNICODE     | Unicode character | 2                     |
+| ``'u'``   | Py_UNICODE     | str of length 1   | 2                     |
 +-----------+----------------+-------------------+-----------------------+
 | ``'h'``   | signed short   | int               | 2                     |
 +-----------+----------------+-------------------+-----------------------+
@@ -55,10 +55,10 @@
    supporting the buffer interface, or iterable over elements of the
    appropriate type.
 
-   If given a list or string, the initializer is passed to the new array's
-   :meth:`fromlist`, :meth:`fromstring`, or :meth:`fromunicode` method (see below)
-   to add initial items to the array.  Otherwise, the iterable initializer is
-   passed to the :meth:`extend` method.
+   If given a list, bytes or str, the initializer is passed to the new array's
+   :meth:`fromlist`, :meth:`fromstring`, or :meth:`fromunicode` method
+   respectively (see below), to add initial items to the array.  Otherwise,
+   the iterable initializer is passed to the :meth:`extend` method.
 
 
 .. data:: ArrayType
@@ -148,17 +148,20 @@
    a.append(x)`` except that if there is a type error, the array is unchanged.
 
 
-.. method:: array.fromstring(s)
+.. method:: array.fromstring(bytes)
 
-   Appends items from the string, interpreting the string as an array of machine
-   values (as if it had been read from a file using the :meth:`fromfile` method).
+   Appends items from a bytes object, interpreting it as an array of
+   machine values (as if it had been read from a file using the
+   :meth:`fromfile` method).
+ 
+   Also accepts a str, which is encoded as UTF-8 bytes.
 
 
-.. method:: array.fromunicode(s)
+.. method:: array.fromunicode(string)
 
-   Extends this array with data from the given unicode string.  The array must
+   Extends this array with data from the given string.  The array must
    be a type ``'u'`` array; otherwise a :exc:`ValueError` is raised.  Use
-   ``array.fromstring(unicodestring.encode(enc))`` to append Unicode data to an
+   ``array.fromstring(string.encode(enc))`` to append Unicode data to an
    array of some other type.
 
 
@@ -203,16 +206,16 @@
 
 .. method:: array.tostring()
 
-   Convert the array to an array of machine values and return the string
+   Convert the array to an array of machine values and return the bytes
    representation (the same sequence of bytes that would be written to a file by
    the :meth:`tofile` method.)
 
 
 .. method:: array.tounicode()
 
-   Convert the array to a unicode string.  The array must be a type ``'u'`` array;
+   Convert the array to a Unicode string.  The array must be a type ``'u'`` array;
    otherwise a :exc:`ValueError` is raised. Use ``array.tostring().decode(enc)`` to
-   obtain a unicode string from an array of some other type.
+   obtain a string from an array of some other type.
 
 
 When an array object is printed or converted to a string, it is represented as
@@ -223,9 +226,15 @@
 :func:`array` function has been imported using ``from array import array``.
 Examples::
 
+   >>> array('l')
    array('l')
-   array('u', 'hello \u2641')
+   >>> array('b', b'hello world')
+   array('b', [104, 101, 108, 108, 111, 32, 119, 111, 114, 108, 100])
+   >>> array('u', 'hello \u2641')
+   array('u', 'hello ♁')
+   >>> array('l', [1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
    array('l', [1, 2, 3, 4, 5])
+   >>> array('d', [1.0, 2, 3.14])
    array('d', [1.0, 2.0, 3.14])
 
 
Index: Modules/arraymodule.c
===================================================================
--- Modules/arraymodule.c	(revision 71822)
+++ Modules/arraymodule.c	(working copy)
@@ -1380,10 +1380,12 @@
 }
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(fromstring_doc,
-"fromstring(string)\n\
+"fromstring(bytes)\n\
 \n\
-Appends items from the string, interpreting it as an array of machine\n\
-values, as if it had been read from a file using the fromfile() method).");
+Appends items from the bytes object, interpreting it as an array of machine\n\
+values, as if it had been read from a file using the fromfile() method).\n\
+\n\
+Also accepts a str, which is encoded as UTF-8 bytes.");
 
 
 static PyObject *
@@ -1398,9 +1400,9 @@
 }
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(tostring_doc,
-"tostring() -> string\n\
+"tostring() -> bytes\n\
 \n\
-Convert the array to an array of machine values and return the string\n\
+Convert the array to an array of machine values and return the bytes\n\
 representation.");
 
 
@@ -1434,11 +1436,11 @@
 }
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(fromunicode_doc,
-"fromunicode(ustr)\n\
+"fromunicode(string)\n\
 \n\
-Extends this array with data from the unicode string ustr.\n\
-The array must be a unicode type array; otherwise a ValueError\n\
-is raised.  Use array.fromstring(ustr.decode(...)) to\n\
+Extends this array with data from the given string.\n\
+The array must be a type 'u' array; otherwise a ValueError\n\
+is raised.  Use array.fromstring(string.encode(enc)) to\n\
 append Unicode data to an array of some other type.");
 
 
@@ -1456,12 +1458,12 @@
 }
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(tounicode_doc,
-"tounicode() -> unicode\n\
+"tounicode() -> str\n\
 \n\
-Convert the array to a unicode string.  The array must be\n\
-a unicode type array; otherwise a ValueError is raised.  Use\n\
-array.tostring().decode() to obtain a unicode string from\n\
-an array of some other type.");
+Convert the array to a Unicode string.  The array must be\n\
+a type 'u' array; otherwise a ValueError is raised.  Use\n\
+array.tostring().decode(enc) to obtain a string from an array\n\
+of some other type.");
 
 
 
@@ -1977,7 +1979,7 @@
 \n\
 Return a new array whose items are restricted by typecode, and\n\
 initialized from the optional initializer value, which must be a list,\n\
-string. or iterable over elements of the appropriate type.\n\
+bytes, string or iterable over elements of the appropriate type.\n\
 \n\
 Arrays represent basic values and behave very much like lists, except\n\
 the type of objects stored in them is constrained.\n\
@@ -1990,8 +1992,9 @@
 count() -- return number of occurrences of an object\n\
 extend() -- extend array by appending multiple elements from an iterable\n\
 fromfile() -- read items from a file object\n\
-fromlist() -- append items from the list\n\
-fromstring() -- append items from the string\n\
+fromlist() -- append items from a list\n\
+fromstring() -- append items from a bytes object\n\
+fromunicode() -- append items from a string\n\
 index() -- return index of first occurrence of an object\n\
 insert() -- insert a new item into the array at a provided position\n\
 pop() -- remove and return item (default last)\n\
@@ -1999,7 +2002,8 @@
 reverse() -- reverse the order of the items in the array\n\
 tofile() -- write all items to a file object\n\
 tolist() -- return the array converted to an ordinary list\n\
-tostring() -- return the array converted to a string\n\
+tostring() -- return the array converted to a bytes\n\
+tounicode() -- return the array converted to a string\n\
 \n\
 Attributes:\n\
 \n\