Raymond Hettinger added the comment: I think the docs are fine as-is. Whether an identical tuple is new or not is an implementation detail. IMO, the docs would create more confusion by trying to over-explain, "slicing of tuples always returns a new tuple when the result tuple is distinct from the original; however, in the case where the result tuple is not distinct, the implementation is at liberty to return the original tuple instead of a new tuple. Since tuples are immutable, this should make no difference at all to the user." ---------- resolution: -> not a bug stage: -> resolved status: open -> closed _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue29813> _______________________________________