>>> math.fmod.__doc__ 'fmod(x,y)\012\012Return x % y.' >>> math.fmod(-3.2,1) -0.20000000000000018 >>> (-3.2)%1 0.79999999999999982 This was taken from Python 2.0b1, but it is very much the same in 1.5.2: Is the __doc__ string wrong or is it a bug? Nadav.