Fixed #22218 -- Deprecated django.conf.urls.patterns.

Thanks Carl Meyer for the suggestion and Alex Gaynor and Carl for reviews.

13 files changed, 169 insertions, 131 deletions

diff --git a/docs/ref/class-based-views/base.txt b/docs/ref/class-based-views/base.txt
index fb98f9d80e..e8f5271e97 100644
--- a/docs/ref/class-based-views/base.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/class-based-views/base.txt
@@ -39,13 +39,13 @@ View
 
     **Example urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from myapp.views import MyView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^mine/$', MyView.as_view(), name='my-view'),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Attributes**
 
@@ -131,13 +131,13 @@ TemplateView
 
     **Example urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from myapp.views import HomePageView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^$', HomePageView.as_view(), name='home'),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Context**
 
@@ -192,17 +192,16 @@ RedirectView
 
     **Example urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
         from django.views.generic.base import RedirectView
 
         from article.views import ArticleCounterRedirectView, ArticleDetail
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
-
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^counter/(?P<pk>\d+)/$', ArticleCounterRedirectView.as_view(), name='article-counter'),
             url(r'^details/(?P<pk>\d+)/$', ArticleDetail.as_view(), name='article-detail'),
             url(r'^go-to-django/$', RedirectView.as_view(url='http://djangoproject.com'), name='go-to-django'),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Attributes**
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/class-based-views/generic-date-based.txt b/docs/ref/class-based-views/generic-date-based.txt
index bf70f2313b..9d6d447052 100644
--- a/docs/ref/class-based-views/generic-date-based.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/class-based-views/generic-date-based.txt
@@ -65,16 +65,16 @@ ArchiveIndexView
 
     **Example myapp/views.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
         from django.views.generic.dates import ArchiveIndexView
 
         from myapp.models import Article
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^archive/$',
                 ArchiveIndexView.as_view(model=Article, date_field="pub_date"),
                 name="article_archive"),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Example myapp/article_archive.html**:
 
@@ -166,15 +166,15 @@ YearArchiveView
 
     **Example myapp/urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from myapp.views import ArticleYearArchiveView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^(?P<year>\d{4})/$',
                 ArticleYearArchiveView.as_view(),
                 name="article_year_archive"),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Example myapp/article_archive_year.html**:
 
@@ -261,11 +261,11 @@ MonthArchiveView
 
     **Example myapp/urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from myapp.views import ArticleMonthArchiveView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             # Example: /2012/aug/
             url(r'^(?P<year>\d{4})/(?P<month>[-\w]+)/$',
                 ArticleMonthArchiveView.as_view(),
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ MonthArchiveView
             url(r'^(?P<year>\d{4})/(?P<month>\d+)/$',
                 ArticleMonthArchiveView.as_view(month_format='%m'),
                 name="archive_month_numeric"),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Example myapp/article_archive_month.html**:
 
@@ -355,16 +355,16 @@ WeekArchiveView
 
     **Example myapp/urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from myapp.views import ArticleWeekArchiveView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             # Example: /2012/week/23/
             url(r'^(?P<year>\d{4})/week/(?P<week>\d+)/$',
                 ArticleWeekArchiveView.as_view(),
                 name="archive_week"),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Example myapp/article_archive_week.html**:
 
@@ -469,16 +469,16 @@ DayArchiveView
 
     **Example myapp/urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from myapp.views import ArticleDayArchiveView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             # Example: /2012/nov/10/
             url(r'^(?P<year>\d{4})/(?P<month>[-\w]+)/(?P<day>\d+)/$',
                 ArticleDayArchiveView.as_view(),
                 name="archive_day"),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Example myapp/article_archive_day.html**:
 
@@ -543,15 +543,15 @@ TodayArchiveView
 
     **Example myapp/urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from myapp.views import ArticleTodayArchiveView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^today/$',
                 ArticleTodayArchiveView.as_view(),
                 name="archive_today"),
-        )
+        ]
 
     .. admonition:: Where is the example template for ``TodayArchiveView``?
 
@@ -593,14 +593,14 @@ DateDetailView
 
     **Example myapp/urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
         from django.views.generic.dates import DateDetailView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^(?P<year>\d+)/(?P<month>[-\w]+)/(?P<day>\d+)/(?P<pk>\d+)/$',
                 DateDetailView.as_view(model=Article, date_field="pub_date"),
                 name="archive_date_detail"),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Example myapp/article_detail.html**:
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/class-based-views/generic-display.txt b/docs/ref/class-based-views/generic-display.txt
index 24006d48d3..1ca8125501 100644
--- a/docs/ref/class-based-views/generic-display.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/class-based-views/generic-display.txt
@@ -54,13 +54,13 @@ DetailView
 
     **Example myapp/urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from article.views import ArticleDetailView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^(?P<slug>[-_\w]+)/$', ArticleDetailView.as_view(), name='article-detail'),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Example myapp/article_detail.html**:
 
@@ -123,13 +123,13 @@ ListView
 
     **Example myapp/urls.py**::
 
-        from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+        from django.conf.urls import url
 
         from article.views import ArticleListView
 
-        urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        urlpatterns = [
             url(r'^$', ArticleListView.as_view(), name='article-list'),
-        )
+        ]
 
     **Example myapp/article_list.html**:
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/class-based-views/index.txt b/docs/ref/class-based-views/index.txt
index 821edc0874..81d5c560f9 100644
--- a/docs/ref/class-based-views/index.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/class-based-views/index.txt
@@ -25,9 +25,9 @@ a thread-safe operation).
 A class-based view is deployed into a URL pattern using the
 :meth:`~django.views.generic.base.View.as_view()` classmethod::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^view/$', MyView.as_view(size=42)),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^view/$', MyView.as_view(size=42)),
+    ]
 
 .. admonition:: Thread safety with view arguments
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/admin/index.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/admin/index.txt
index 7ebe90060b..d999b11efe 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/admin/index.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/admin/index.txt
@@ -1395,9 +1395,9 @@ templates used by the :class:`ModelAdmin` views:
         class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
             def get_urls(self):
                 urls = super(MyModelAdmin, self).get_urls()
-                my_urls = patterns('',
-                    (r'^my_view/$', self.my_view)
-                )
+                my_urls = [
+                    url(r'^my_view/$', self.my_view),
+                ]
                 return my_urls + urls
 
             def my_view(self, request):
@@ -1432,9 +1432,9 @@ templates used by the :class:`ModelAdmin` views:
         class MyModelAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
             def get_urls(self):
                 urls = super(MyModelAdmin, self).get_urls()
-                my_urls = patterns('',
-                    (r'^my_view/$', self.admin_site.admin_view(self.my_view))
-                )
+                my_urls = [
+                    url(r'^my_view/$', self.admin_site.admin_view(self.my_view))
+                ]
                 return my_urls + urls
 
     Notice the wrapped view in the fifth line above::
@@ -2434,23 +2434,23 @@ In this example, we register the default ``AdminSite`` instance
 ``django.contrib.admin.site`` at the URL ``/admin/`` ::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, include
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
     from django.contrib import admin
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
+    ]
 
 In this example, we register the ``AdminSite`` instance
 ``myproject.admin.admin_site`` at the URL ``/myadmin/`` ::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, include
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
     from myproject.admin import admin_site
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^myadmin/', include(admin_site.urls)),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^myadmin/', include(admin_site.urls)),
+    ]
 
 Note that you may not want autodiscovery of ``admin`` modules when using your
 own ``AdminSite`` instance since you will likely be importing all the per-app
@@ -2472,13 +2472,13 @@ separate versions of the admin site -- using the ``AdminSite`` instances
 respectively::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, include
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
     from myproject.admin import basic_site, advanced_site
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^basic-admin/', include(basic_site.urls)),
-        (r'^advanced-admin/', include(advanced_site.urls)),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^basic-admin/', include(basic_site.urls)),
+        url(r'^advanced-admin/', include(advanced_site.urls)),
+    ]
 
 ``AdminSite`` instances take a single argument to their constructor, their
 name, which can be anything you like. This argument becomes the prefix to the
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/flatpages.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/flatpages.txt
index be9fe0c636..b280e0ddc4 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/flatpages.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/flatpages.txt
@@ -46,9 +46,9 @@ Then either:
 
 3. Add an entry in your URLconf. For example::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^pages/', include('django.contrib.flatpages.urls')),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^pages/', include('django.contrib.flatpages.urls')),
+    ]
 
 or:
 
@@ -73,17 +73,19 @@ Using the URLconf
 There are several ways to include the flat pages in your URLconf. You can
 dedicate a particular path to flat pages::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^pages/', include('django.contrib.flatpages.urls')),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^pages/', include('django.contrib.flatpages.urls')),
+    ]
 
 You can also set it up as a "catchall" pattern. In this case, it is important
 to place the pattern at the end of the other urlpatterns::
 
+    from django.contrib.flatpages import views
+
     # Your other patterns here
-    urlpatterns += patterns('django.contrib.flatpages.views',
-        (r'^(?P<url>.*/)$', 'flatpage'),
-    )
+    urlpatterns += [
+        url(r'^(?P<url>.*/)$', views.flatpage),
+    ]
 
 .. warning::
 
@@ -95,10 +97,12 @@ Another common setup is to use flat pages for a limited set of known pages and
 to hard code the urls, so you can reference them with the :ttag:`url` template
 tag::
 
-    urlpatterns += patterns('django.contrib.flatpages.views',
-        url(r'^about-us/$', 'flatpage', {'url': '/about-us/'}, name='about'),
-        url(r'^license/$', 'flatpage', {'url': '/license/'}, name='license'),
-    )
+    from django.contrib.flatpages import views
+
+    urlpatterns += [
+        url(r'^about-us/$', views.flatpage, {'url': '/about-us/'}, name='about'),
+        url(r'^license/$', views.flatpage, {'url': '/license/'}, name='license'),
+    ]
 
 Using the middleware
 --------------------
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/formtools/form-wizard.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/formtools/form-wizard.txt
index 2934893776..054c027ea8 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/formtools/form-wizard.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/formtools/form-wizard.txt
@@ -251,14 +251,14 @@ deploy the new :class:`WizardView` object at a URL in the ``urls.py``. The
 wizard's ``as_view()`` method takes a list of your
 :class:`~django.forms.Form` classes as an argument during instantiation::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
     from myapp.forms import ContactForm1, ContactForm2
     from myapp.views import ContactWizard
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^contact/$', ContactWizard.as_view([ContactForm1, ContactForm2])),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^contact/$', ContactWizard.as_view([ContactForm1, ContactForm2])),
+    ]
 
 You can also pass the form list as a class attribute named ``form_list``::
 
@@ -311,9 +311,9 @@ Here's what the view code might look like::
 
 The ``urls.py`` file would contain something like::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^checkout/$', OrderWizard.as_view(FORMS, condition_dict={'cc': pay_by_credit_card})),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^checkout/$', OrderWizard.as_view(FORMS, condition_dict={'cc': pay_by_credit_card})),
+    ]
 
 The ``condition_dict`` can be passed as attribute for the ``as_view()`
 method or as a class attribute named ``condition_dict``::
@@ -673,18 +673,18 @@ We define our wizard in a ``views.py``::
 
 We need to add the ``ContactWizard`` to our ``urls.py`` file::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
     from myapp.forms import ContactForm1, ContactForm2
     from myapp.views import ContactWizard, show_message_form_condition
 
     contact_forms = [ContactForm1, ContactForm2]
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^contact/$', ContactWizard.as_view(contact_forms,
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^contact/$', ContactWizard.as_view(contact_forms,
             condition_dict={'1': show_message_form_condition}
         )),
-    )
+    ]
 
 As you can see, we defined a ``show_message_form_condition`` next to our
 :class:`WizardView` subclass and added a ``condition_dict`` argument to the
@@ -728,7 +728,7 @@ Additionally you have to pass two more arguments to the
 
 Example code for the changed ``urls.py`` file::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import url, patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
     from myapp.forms import ContactForm1, ContactForm2
     from myapp.views import ContactWizard
@@ -741,10 +741,10 @@ Example code for the changed ``urls.py`` file::
     contact_wizard = ContactWizard.as_view(named_contact_forms,
         url_name='contact_step', done_step_name='finished')
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^contact/(?P<step>.+)/$', contact_wizard, name='contact_step'),
         url(r'^contact/$', contact_wizard, name='contact'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Advanced ``NamedUrlWizardView`` methods
 =======================================
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/gis/tutorial.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/gis/tutorial.txt
index 24470e8227..fee293728e 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/gis/tutorial.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/gis/tutorial.txt
@@ -730,12 +730,12 @@ Let's dive right in.  Create a file called ``admin.py`` inside the
 
 Next, edit your ``urls.py`` in the ``geodjango`` application folder as follows::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url, include
+    from django.conf.urls import url, include
     from django.contrib.gis import admin
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Start up the Django development server:
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/sitemaps.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/sitemaps.txt
index fefe90a420..12ed61b97a 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/sitemaps.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/sitemaps.txt
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ Example
 
 Here's an example of a :doc:`URLconf </topics/http/urls>` using both::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from django.contrib.sitemaps import FlatPageSitemap, GenericSitemap
     from blog.models import Entry
 
@@ -279,13 +279,13 @@ Here's an example of a :doc:`URLconf </topics/http/urls>` using both::
         'blog': GenericSitemap(info_dict, priority=0.6),
     }
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         # some generic view using info_dict
         # ...
 
         # the sitemap
-        (r'^sitemap\.xml$', 'django.contrib.sitemaps.views.sitemap', {'sitemaps': sitemaps})
-    )
+        url(r'^sitemap\.xml$', 'django.contrib.sitemaps.views.sitemap', {'sitemaps': sitemaps}),
+    ]
 
 .. _URLconf: ../url_dispatch/
 
@@ -313,20 +313,20 @@ the sitemap. For example::
             return reverse(item)
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from .sitemaps import StaticViewSitemap
 
     sitemaps = {
         'static': StaticViewSitemap,
     }
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^$', 'views.main', name='main'),
         url(r'^about/$', 'views.about', name='about'),
         url(r'^license/$', 'views.license', name='license'),
         # ...
         url(r'^sitemap\.xml$', 'django.contrib.sitemaps.views.sitemap', {'sitemaps': sitemaps})
-    )
+    ]
 
 
 Creating a sitemap index
@@ -345,10 +345,12 @@ references individual sitemap files, one per each section defined in your
 
 Here's what the relevant URLconf lines would look like for the example above::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('django.contrib.sitemaps.views',
-        (r'^sitemap\.xml$', 'index', {'sitemaps': sitemaps}),
-        (r'^sitemap-(?P<section>.+)\.xml$', 'sitemap', {'sitemaps': sitemaps}),
-    )
+    from django.contrib.sitemaps import views
+
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^sitemap\.xml$', views.index, {'sitemaps': sitemaps}),
+        url(r'^sitemap-(?P<section>.+)\.xml$', views.sitemap, {'sitemaps': sitemaps}),
+    ]
 
 This will automatically generate a :file:`sitemap.xml` file that references
 both :file:`sitemap-flatpages.xml` and :file:`sitemap-blog.xml`. The
@@ -366,14 +368,14 @@ with a caching decorator -- you must name your sitemap view and pass
     from django.contrib.sitemaps import views as sitemaps_views
     from django.views.decorators.cache import cache_page
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^sitemap\.xml$',
             cache_page(86400)(sitemaps_views.index),
             {'sitemaps': sitemaps, 'sitemap_url_name': 'sitemaps'}),
         url(r'^sitemap-(?P<section>.+)\.xml$',
             cache_page(86400)(sitemaps_views.sitemap),
             {'sitemaps': sitemaps}, name='sitemaps'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 
 Template customization
@@ -383,16 +385,18 @@ If you wish to use a different template for each sitemap or sitemap index
 available on your site, you may specify it by passing a ``template_name``
 parameter to the ``sitemap`` and ``index`` views via the URLconf::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('django.contrib.sitemaps.views',
-        (r'^custom-sitemap\.xml$', 'index', {
+    from django.contrib.sitemaps import views
+
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^custom-sitemap\.xml$', views.index, {
             'sitemaps': sitemaps,
             'template_name': 'custom_sitemap.html'
         }),
-        (r'^custom-sitemap-(?P<section>.+)\.xml$', 'sitemap', {
+        url(r'^custom-sitemap-(?P<section>.+)\.xml$', views.sitemap, {
             'sitemaps': sitemaps,
             'template_name': 'custom_sitemap.html'
         }),
-    )
+    ]
 
 
 These views return :class:`~django.template.response.TemplateResponse`
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/staticfiles.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/staticfiles.txt
index 961abf5c5d..8f7ba0a6fe 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/staticfiles.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/staticfiles.txt
@@ -445,11 +445,12 @@ local development server, add the following snippet to the end of your
 primary URL configuration::
 
    from django.conf import settings
+   from django.contrib.staticfiles import views
 
    if settings.DEBUG:
-       urlpatterns += patterns('django.contrib.staticfiles.views',
-           url(r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', 'serve'),
-       )
+       urlpatterns += [
+           url(r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', views.serve),
+       ]
 
 Note, the beginning of the pattern (``r'^static/'``) should be your
 :setting:`STATIC_URL` setting.
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/syndication.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/syndication.txt
index 61adfef35d..b2ebf40e61 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/syndication.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/syndication.txt
@@ -77,14 +77,14 @@ a feed of the latest five news items::
 To connect a URL to this feed, put an instance of the Feed object in
 your :doc:`URLconf </topics/http/urls>`. For example::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from myproject.feeds import LatestEntriesFeed
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         # ...
-        (r'^latest/feed/$', LatestEntriesFeed()),
+        url(r'^latest/feed/$', LatestEntriesFeed()),
         # ...
-    )
+    ]
 
 Note:
 
@@ -366,15 +366,15 @@ Here's a full example::
 
 And the accompanying URLconf::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from myproject.feeds import RssSiteNewsFeed, AtomSiteNewsFeed
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         # ...
-        (r'^sitenews/rss/$', RssSiteNewsFeed()),
-        (r'^sitenews/atom/$', AtomSiteNewsFeed()),
+        url(r'^sitenews/rss/$', RssSiteNewsFeed()),
+        url(r'^sitenews/atom/$', AtomSiteNewsFeed()),
         # ...
-    )
+    ]
 
 Feed class reference
 --------------------
diff --git a/docs/ref/urls.txt b/docs/ref/urls.txt
index 1806e1980f..47ef488afc 100644
--- a/docs/ref/urls.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/urls.txt
@@ -9,11 +9,42 @@ patterns()
 
 .. function:: patterns(prefix, pattern_description, ...)
 
+.. deprecated:: 1.8
+
+    ``urlpatterns`` should be a plain list of :func:`django.conf.urls.url`
+    instances instead.
+
 A function that takes a prefix, and an arbitrary number of URL patterns, and
 returns a list of URL patterns in the format Django needs.
 
-The first argument to ``patterns()`` is a string ``prefix``. See
-:ref:`The view prefix <urlpatterns-view-prefix>`.
+The first argument to ``patterns()`` is a string ``prefix``. Here's the example
+URLconf from the :doc:`Django overview </intro/overview>`::
+
+    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+
+    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', 'news.views.year_archive'),
+        url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/(\d{2})/$', 'news.views.month_archive'),
+        url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/(\d{2})/(\d+)/$', 'news.views.article_detail'),
+    )
+
+In this example, each view has a common prefix -- ``'news.views'``.
+Instead of typing that out for each entry in ``urlpatterns``, you can use the
+first argument to the ``patterns()`` function to specify a prefix to apply to
+each view function.
+
+With this in mind, the above example can be written more concisely as::
+
+    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+
+    urlpatterns = patterns('news.views',
+        url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', 'year_archive'),
+        url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/(\d{2})/$', 'month_archive'),
+        url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/(\d{2})/(\d+)/$', 'article_detail'),
+    )
+
+Note that you don't put a trailing dot (``"."``) in the prefix. Django puts
+that in automatically.
 
 The remaining arguments should be tuples in this format::
 
@@ -54,23 +85,21 @@ Helper function to return a URL pattern for serving files in debug mode::
     from django.conf import settings
     from django.conf.urls.static import static
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
-    ) + static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
+    ] + static(settings.MEDIA_URL, document_root=settings.MEDIA_ROOT)
 
 url()
 -----
 
 .. function:: url(regex, view, kwargs=None, name=None, prefix='')
 
-You can use the ``url()`` function, instead of a tuple, as an argument to
-``patterns()``. This is convenient if you want to specify a name without the
-optional extra arguments dictionary. For example::
+``urlpatterns`` should be a list of ``url()`` instances. For example::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^index/$', index_view, name="main-view"),
         ...
-    )
+    ]
 
 This function takes five arguments, most of which are optional::
 
@@ -107,7 +136,7 @@ include()
     :type namespace: string
     :arg app_name: Application namespace for the URL entries being included
     :type app_name: string
-    :arg pattern_list: Iterable of URL entries as returned by :func:`patterns`
+    :arg pattern_list: Iterable of :func:`django.conf.urls.url` instances
     :arg app_namespace: Application namespace for the URL entries being included
     :type app_namespace: string
     :arg instance_namespace: Instance namespace for the URL entries being included
diff --git a/docs/ref/views.txt b/docs/ref/views.txt
index 8c9c3e3ed8..c5d36abe0a 100644
--- a/docs/ref/views.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/views.txt
@@ -26,15 +26,16 @@ built-in handling for user-uploaded files, but you can have Django serve your
 :setting:`MEDIA_ROOT` by appending something like this to your URLconf::
 
     from django.conf import settings
+    from django.views.static import serve
 
     # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
 
     if settings.DEBUG:
-        urlpatterns += patterns('',
-            url(r'^media/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {
+        urlpatterns += [
+            url(r'^media/(?P<path>.*)$', serve, {
                 'document_root': settings.MEDIA_ROOT,
             }),
-       )
+       ]
 
 Note, the snippet assumes your :setting:`MEDIA_URL` has a value of
 ``'/media/'``. This will call the :func:`~django.views.static.serve` view,