As a general note, I think it would be good to place the exact description in a footnote, since speaking about hashable objects, __hash__ and __cmp__ will certainly frighten off newbies and make it hard to read even for experienced users. The main text may lie/simplyfy a little bit.
Or as Donald Knuth once recommended: "Simplify. Lie, if it helps. You can add the correct details later on, but it is essential to present the reader with something straightforward to start off with. So don’t be afraid to bend the facts initially where this leads to a useful simplification and then pay back the debt to truth later by gradual elaborations." However, since the Python docs are a reference and not a textbook or manual, I think the debt should not be payed back "later", but immediately in a footnote. The docs already follow this principle very well, e.g.: http://docs.python.org/lib/typesmapping.html -- Christoph -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
