diff -r d9c98730e2e8 Doc/library/itertools.rst
--- a/Doc/library/itertools.rst	Sat Jul 07 13:34:50 2012 +1000
+++ b/Doc/library/itertools.rst	Sat Jul 07 10:45:29 2012 +0100
@@ -419,7 +419,10 @@
           # islice('ABCDEFG', 2, None) --> C D E F G
           # islice('ABCDEFG', 0, None, 2) --> A C E G
           s = slice(*args)
-          it = iter(range(s.start or 0, s.stop or sys.maxsize, s.step or 1))
+          start = 0 if s.start is None else s.start
+          stop = sys.maxsize if s.stop is None else s.stop
+          step = 1 if s.step is None else s.step
+          it = iter(range(start, stop, step))
           nexti = next(it)
           for i, element in enumerate(iterable):
               if i == nexti: