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

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

28 files changed, 433 insertions, 387 deletions

diff --git a/docs/howto/static-files/index.txt b/docs/howto/static-files/index.txt
index f94e2601e4..39e5cf1b94 100644
--- a/docs/howto/static-files/index.txt
+++ b/docs/howto/static-files/index.txt
@@ -94,9 +94,9 @@ this by adding the following snippet to your urls.py::
     from django.conf import settings
     from django.conf.urls.static import static
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         # ... the rest of your URLconf goes here ...
-    ) + static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
+    ] + static(settings.STATIC_URL, document_root=settings.STATIC_ROOT)
 
 .. note::
 
@@ -124,9 +124,9 @@ this by adding the following snippet to your urls.py::
     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)
 
 .. note::
 
diff --git a/docs/internals/deprecation.txt b/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
index e06765742e..dc51a5c9cc 100644
--- a/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
+++ b/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
@@ -15,6 +15,11 @@ about each item can often be found in the release notes of two versions prior.
 * ``cycle`` and ``firstof`` template tags will be removed from the ``future``
   template tag library (used during the 1.6/1.7 deprecation period).
 
+* ``django.conf.urls.patterns()`` will be removed.
+
+* Support for the ``prefix`` argument to
+  ``django.conf.urls.i18n.i18n_patterns()`` will be removed.
+
 .. _deprecation-removed-in-1.9:
 
 1.9
diff --git a/docs/intro/overview.txt b/docs/intro/overview.txt
index 6ec3baf0ec..70c4663153 100644
--- a/docs/intro/overview.txt
+++ b/docs/intro/overview.txt
@@ -184,13 +184,13 @@ to decouple URLs from Python code.
 Here's what a URLconf might look like for the ``Reporter``/``Article``
 example above::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', 'news.views.year_archive'),
-        (r'^articles/(\d{4})/(\d{2})/$', 'news.views.month_archive'),
-        (r'^articles/(\d{4})/(\d{2})/(\d+)/$', 'news.views.article_detail'),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', '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'),
+    ]
 
 The code above maps URLs, as simple `regular expressions`_, to the location of
 Python callback functions ("views"). The regular expressions use parenthesis to
diff --git a/docs/intro/tutorial03.txt b/docs/intro/tutorial03.txt
index 5b2bee5fe7..3d4f65a720 100644
--- a/docs/intro/tutorial03.txt
+++ b/docs/intro/tutorial03.txt
@@ -92,13 +92,13 @@ In the ``polls/urls.py`` file include the following code:
 .. snippet::
     :filename: polls/urls.py
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
     from polls import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^$', views.index, name='index')
-    )
+    ]
 
 The next step is to point the root URLconf at the ``polls.urls`` module. In
 ``mysite/urls.py`` insert an :func:`~django.conf.urls.include`, leaving you
@@ -107,13 +107,13 @@ with:
 .. snippet::
     :filename: mysite/urls.py
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
     from django.contrib import admin
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^polls/', include('polls.urls')),
         url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
-    )
+    ]
 
 .. admonition:: Doesn't match what you see?
 
@@ -207,11 +207,11 @@ Wire these new views into the ``polls.urls`` module by adding the following
 .. snippet::
     :filename: polls/urls.py
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
     from polls import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         # ex: /polls/
         url(r'^$', views.index, name='index'),
         # ex: /polls/5/
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ Wire these new views into the ``polls.urls`` module by adding the following
         url(r'^(?P<question_id>\d+)/results/$', views.results, name='results'),
         # ex: /polls/5/vote/
         url(r'^(?P<question_id>\d+)/vote/$', views.vote, name='vote'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Take a look in your browser, at "/polls/34/". It'll run the ``detail()``
 method and display whatever ID you provide in the URL. Try
@@ -583,13 +583,13 @@ it to include namespacing:
 .. snippet::
     :filename: mysite/urls.py
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
     from django.contrib import admin
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^polls/', include('polls.urls', namespace="polls")),
         url(r'^admin/', include(admin.site.urls)),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Now change your ``polls/index.html`` template from:
 
diff --git a/docs/intro/tutorial04.txt b/docs/intro/tutorial04.txt
index fbccb93a70..63d12d1a68 100644
--- a/docs/intro/tutorial04.txt
+++ b/docs/intro/tutorial04.txt
@@ -222,16 +222,16 @@ First, open the ``polls/urls.py`` URLconf and change it like so:
 .. snippet::
     :filename: polls/urls.py
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
     from polls import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^$', views.IndexView.as_view(), name='index'),
         url(r'^(?P<pk>\d+)/$', views.DetailView.as_view(), name='detail'),
         url(r'^(?P<pk>\d+)/results/$', views.ResultsView.as_view(), name='results'),
         url(r'^(?P<question_id>\d+)/vote/$', views.vote, name='vote'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Amend views
 -----------
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,
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.8.txt b/docs/releases/1.8.txt
index d86836a50f..6112ea4744 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.8.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.8.txt
@@ -203,3 +203,62 @@ Django 1.6 introduced ``{% load cycle from future %}`` and
 :ttag:`cycle` and :ttag:`firstof` template tags. This syntax is now deprecated
 and will be removed in Django 2.0. You can simply remove the
 ``{% load ... from future %}`` tags.
+
+``django.conf.urls.patterns()``
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In the olden days of Django, it was encouraged to reference views as strings
+in ``urlpatterns``::
+
+    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        url('^$', 'myapp.views.myview'),
+    )
+
+and Django would magically import ``myapp.views.myview`` internally and turn
+the string into a real function reference. In order to reduce repetition when
+referencing many views from the same module, the ``patterns()`` function takes
+a required initial ``prefix`` argument which is prepended to all
+views-as-strings in that set of ``urlpatterns``::
+
+    urlpatterns = patterns('myapp.views',
+        url('^$', 'myview'),
+        url('^other/$', 'otherview'),
+    )
+
+In the modern era, we have updated the tutorial to instead recommend importing
+your views module and referencing your view functions (or classes) directly.
+This has a number of advantages, all deriving from the fact that we are using
+normal Python in place of "Django String Magic": the errors when you mistype a
+view name are less obscure, IDEs can help with autocompletion of view names,
+etc.
+
+So these days, the above use of the ``prefix`` arg is much more likely to be
+written (and is better written) as::
+
+    from myapp import views
+
+    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+        url('^$', views.myview),
+        url('^other/$', views.otherview),
+    )
+
+Thus ``patterns()`` serves little purpose and is a burden when teaching new users
+(answering the newbie's question "why do I need this empty string as the first
+argument to ``patterns()``?"). For these reasons, we are deprecating it.
+Updating your code is as simple as ensuring that ``urlpatterns`` is a string of
+:func:`django.conf.urls.url` instances. For example::
+
+    from django.conf.urls import url
+    from myapp import views
+
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url('^$', views.myview),
+        url('^other/$', views.otherview),
+    ]
+
+``prefix`` argument to :func:`~django.conf.urls.i18n.i18n_patterns`
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Related to the previous item, the ``prefix`` argument to
+:func:`django.conf.urls.i18n.i18n_patterns` has been deprecated. Simply pass a
+list of :func:`django.conf.urls.url` instances instead.
diff --git a/docs/spelling_wordlist b/docs/spelling_wordlist
index 78626ae2de..df695587e2 100644
--- a/docs/spelling_wordlist
+++ b/docs/spelling_wordlist
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ attr
 auth
 autoclobber
 autocommit
+autocompletion
 autoconf
 autodetect
 autodetectable
diff --git a/docs/topics/cache.txt b/docs/topics/cache.txt
index f9623b324b..feeaf37a47 100644
--- a/docs/topics/cache.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/cache.txt
@@ -532,9 +532,9 @@ The per-view cache, like the per-site cache, is keyed off of the URL. If
 multiple URLs point at the same view, each URL will be cached separately.
 Continuing the ``my_view`` example, if your URLconf looks like this::
 
-    urlpatterns = ('',
-        (r'^foo/(\d{1,2})/$', my_view),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^foo/(\d{1,2})/$', my_view),
+    ]
 
 then requests to ``/foo/1/`` and ``/foo/23/`` will be cached separately, as
 you may expect. But once a particular URL (e.g., ``/foo/23/``) has been
@@ -578,17 +578,17 @@ themselves.
 Doing so is easy: simply wrap the view function with ``cache_page`` when you
 refer to it in the URLconf. Here's the old URLconf from earlier::
 
-    urlpatterns = ('',
-        (r'^foo/(\d{1,2})/$', my_view),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^foo/(\d{1,2})/$', my_view),
+    ]
 
 Here's the same thing, with ``my_view`` wrapped in ``cache_page``::
 
     from django.views.decorators.cache import cache_page
 
-    urlpatterns = ('',
-        (r'^foo/(\d{1,2})/$', cache_page(60 * 15)(my_view)),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^foo/(\d{1,2})/$', cache_page(60 * 15)(my_view)),
+    ]
 
 .. templatetag:: cache
 
diff --git a/docs/topics/class-based-views/generic-display.txt b/docs/topics/class-based-views/generic-display.txt
index 9c5527dac5..98d2b79d32 100644
--- a/docs/topics/class-based-views/generic-display.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/class-based-views/generic-display.txt
@@ -119,12 +119,12 @@ Now we need to define a view::
 Finally hook that view into your urls::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from books.views import PublisherList
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^publishers/$', PublisherList.as_view()),
-    )
+    ]
 
 That's all the Python code we need to write. We still need to write a template,
 however. We could explicitly tell the view which template to use by adding a
@@ -330,12 +330,12 @@ various useful things are stored on ``self``; as well as the request
 Here, we have a URLconf with a single captured group::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from books.views import PublisherBookList
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^books/([\w-]+)/$', PublisherBookList.as_view()),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^books/([\w-]+)/$', PublisherBookList.as_view()),
+    ]
 
 Next, we'll write the ``PublisherBookList`` view itself::
 
@@ -396,13 +396,13 @@ updated.
 First, we'd need to add an author detail bit in the URLconf to point to a
 custom view::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from books.views import AuthorDetailView
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         #...
         url(r'^authors/(?P<pk>\d+)/$', AuthorDetailView.as_view(), name='author-detail'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Then we'd write our new view -- ``get_object`` is the method that retrieves the
 object -- so we simply override it and wrap the call::
diff --git a/docs/topics/class-based-views/generic-editing.txt b/docs/topics/class-based-views/generic-editing.txt
index 44680148ab..2587c9426d 100644
--- a/docs/topics/class-based-views/generic-editing.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/class-based-views/generic-editing.txt
@@ -141,15 +141,15 @@ an :exc:`~django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured` exception if it's not.
 Finally, we hook these new views into the URLconf::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from myapp.views import AuthorCreate, AuthorUpdate, AuthorDelete
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         # ...
         url(r'author/add/$', AuthorCreate.as_view(), name='author_add'),
         url(r'author/(?P<pk>\d+)/$', AuthorUpdate.as_view(), name='author_update'),
         url(r'author/(?P<pk>\d+)/delete/$', AuthorDelete.as_view(), name='author_delete'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 .. note::
 
diff --git a/docs/topics/class-based-views/index.txt b/docs/topics/class-based-views/index.txt
index 84e4597842..dc77f04721 100644
--- a/docs/topics/class-based-views/index.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/class-based-views/index.txt
@@ -38,12 +38,12 @@ URLconf. If you're only changing a few simple attributes on a class-based view,
 you can simply pass them into the
 :meth:`~django.views.generic.base.View.as_view` method call itself::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from django.views.generic import TemplateView
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^about/', TemplateView.as_view(template_name="about.html")),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^about/', TemplateView.as_view(template_name="about.html")),
+    ]
 
 Any arguments passed to :meth:`~django.views.generic.base.View.as_view` will
 override attributes set on the class. In this example, we set ``template_name``
@@ -75,12 +75,12 @@ class method instead, which provides a function-like entry to class-based
 views::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from some_app.views import AboutView
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^about/', AboutView.as_view()),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^about/', AboutView.as_view()),
+    ]
 
 
 For more information on how to use the built in generic views, consult the next
@@ -100,12 +100,12 @@ preferable to ask the API when the most recent book was published.
 
 We map the URL to book list view in the URLconf::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from books.views import BookListView
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^books/$', BookListView.as_view()),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^books/$', BookListView.as_view()),
+    ]
 
 And the view::
 
diff --git a/docs/topics/class-based-views/intro.txt b/docs/topics/class-based-views/intro.txt
index dbd7a83a31..53f32198c6 100644
--- a/docs/topics/class-based-views/intro.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/class-based-views/intro.txt
@@ -89,12 +89,12 @@ request to a matching method if one is defined, or raises
 :class:`~django.http.HttpResponseNotAllowed` if not::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from myapp.views import MyView
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^about/', MyView.as_view()),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^about/', MyView.as_view()),
+    ]
 
 
 It is worth noting that what your method returns is identical to what you
@@ -129,9 +129,9 @@ You can override that in a subclass::
 Another option is to configure class attributes as keyword arguments to the
 :meth:`~django.views.generic.base.View.as_view` call in the URLconf::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^about/', GreetingView.as_view(greeting="G'day")),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^about/', GreetingView.as_view(greeting="G'day")),
+    ]
 
 .. note::
 
@@ -268,10 +268,10 @@ The easiest place to do this is in the URLconf where you deploy your view::
 
     from .views import VoteView
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^about/', login_required(TemplateView.as_view(template_name="secret.html"))),
-        (r'^vote/', permission_required('polls.can_vote')(VoteView.as_view())),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^about/', login_required(TemplateView.as_view(template_name="secret.html"))),
+        url(r'^vote/', permission_required('polls.can_vote')(VoteView.as_view())),
+    ]
 
 This approach applies the decorator on a per-instance basis. If you
 want every instance of a view to be decorated, you need to take a
diff --git a/docs/topics/class-based-views/mixins.txt b/docs/topics/class-based-views/mixins.txt
index f0bacca6c1..00729f36f9 100644
--- a/docs/topics/class-based-views/mixins.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/class-based-views/mixins.txt
@@ -256,13 +256,13 @@ mixin.
 We can hook this into our URLs easily enough::
 
     # urls.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from books.views import RecordInterest
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         #...
         url(r'^author/(?P<pk>\d+)/interest/$', RecordInterest.as_view(), name='author-interest'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Note the ``pk`` named group, which
 :meth:`~django.views.generic.detail.SingleObjectMixin.get_object` uses
diff --git a/docs/topics/http/urls.txt b/docs/topics/http/urls.txt
index 46086bc420..05525cc715 100644
--- a/docs/topics/http/urls.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/http/urls.txt
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ algorithm the system follows to determine which Python code to execute:
    will be used in place of the :setting:`ROOT_URLCONF` setting.
 
 2. Django loads that Python module and looks for the variable
-   ``urlpatterns``. This should be a Python list, in the format returned by
-   the function :func:`django.conf.urls.patterns`.
+   ``urlpatterns``. This should be a Python list of :func:`django.conf.urls.url`
+   instances.
 
 3. Django runs through each URL pattern, in order, and stops at the first
    one that matches the requested URL.
@@ -72,14 +72,14 @@ Example
 
 Here's a sample URLconf::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^articles/2003/$', 'news.views.special_case_2003'),
         url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', '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'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Notes:
 
@@ -129,14 +129,14 @@ is ``(?P<name>pattern)``, where ``name`` is the name of the group and
 
 Here's the above example URLconf, rewritten to use named groups::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^articles/2003/$', 'news.views.special_case_2003'),
         url(r'^articles/(?P<year>\d{4})/$', 'news.views.year_archive'),
         url(r'^articles/(?P<year>\d{4})/(?P<month>\d{2})/$', 'news.views.month_archive'),
         url(r'^articles/(?P<year>\d{4})/(?P<month>\d{2})/(?P<day>\d{2})/$', 'news.views.article_detail'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 This accomplishes exactly the same thing as the previous example, with one
 subtle difference: The captured values are passed to view functions as keyword
@@ -203,12 +203,12 @@ A convenient trick is to specify default parameters for your views' arguments.
 Here's an example URLconf and view::
 
     # URLconf
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^blog/$', 'blog.views.page'),
         url(r'^blog/page(?P<num>\d+)/$', 'blog.views.page'),
-    )
+    ]
 
     # View (in blog/views.py)
     def page(request, num="1"):
@@ -230,9 +230,8 @@ accessed. This makes the system blazingly fast.
 Syntax of the urlpatterns variable
 ==================================
 
-``urlpatterns`` should be a Python list, in the format returned by the function
-:func:`django.conf.urls.patterns`. Always use ``patterns()`` to create
-the ``urlpatterns`` variable.
+``urlpatterns`` should be a Python list of :func:`~django.conf.urls.url`
+instances.
 
 Error handling
 ==============
@@ -260,73 +259,6 @@ The variables are:
 * ``handler403`` -- See :data:`django.conf.urls.handler403`.
 * ``handler400`` -- See :data:`django.conf.urls.handler400`.
 
-.. _urlpatterns-view-prefix:
-
-The view prefix
-===============
-
-You can specify a common prefix in your ``patterns()`` call, to cut down on
-code duplication.
-
-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.
-
-Multiple view prefixes
-----------------------
-
-In practice, you'll probably end up mixing and matching views to the point
-where the views in your ``urlpatterns`` won't have a common prefix. However,
-you can still take advantage of the view prefix shortcut to remove duplication.
-Just add multiple ``patterns()`` objects together, like this:
-
-Old::
-
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
-
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        url(r'^$', 'myapp.views.app_index'),
-        url(r'^(?P<year>\d{4})/(?P<month>[a-z]{3})/$', 'myapp.views.month_display'),
-        url(r'^tag/(?P<tag>\w+)/$', 'weblog.views.tag'),
-    )
-
-New::
-
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
-
-    urlpatterns = patterns('myapp.views',
-        url(r'^$', 'app_index'),
-        url(r'^(?P<year>\d{4})/(?P<month>[a-z]{3})/$','month_display'),
-    )
-
-    urlpatterns += patterns('weblog.views',
-        url(r'^tag/(?P<tag>\w+)/$', 'tag'),
-    )
-
 .. _including-other-urlconfs:
 
 Including other URLconfs
@@ -338,14 +270,14 @@ essentially "roots" a set of URLs below other ones.
 For example, here's an excerpt of the URLconf for the `Django Web site`_
 itself. It includes a number of other URLconfs::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import include, patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         # ... snip ...
         url(r'^community/', include('django_website.aggregator.urls')),
         url(r'^contact/', include('django_website.contact.urls')),
         # ... snip ...
-    )
+    ]
 
 Note that the regular expressions in this example don't have a ``$``
 (end-of-string match character) but do include a trailing slash. Whenever
@@ -353,23 +285,21 @@ Django encounters ``include()`` (:func:`django.conf.urls.include()`), it chops
 off whatever part of the URL matched up to that point and sends the remaining
 string to the included URLconf for further processing.
 
-Another possibility is to include additional URL patterns not by specifying the
-URLconf Python module defining them as the ``include()`` argument but by using
-directly the pattern list as returned by :func:`~django.conf.urls.patterns`
-instead. For example, consider this URLconf::
+Another possibility is to include additional URL patterns by using a list of
+:func:`~django.conf.urls.url` instances. For example, consider this URLconf::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import include, patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
 
-    extra_patterns = patterns('',
+    extra_patterns = [
         url(r'^reports/(?P<id>\d+)/$', 'credit.views.report'),
         url(r'^charge/$', 'credit.views.charge'),
-    )
+    ]
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^$', 'apps.main.views.homepage'),
         url(r'^help/', include('apps.help.urls')),
         url(r'^credit/', include(extra_patterns)),
-    )
+    ]
 
 In this example, the ``/credit/reports/`` URL will be handled by the
 ``credit.views.report()`` Django view.
@@ -377,28 +307,30 @@ In this example, the ``/credit/reports/`` URL will be handled by the
 This can be used to remove redundancy from URLconfs where a single pattern
 prefix is used repeatedly. For example, consider this URLconf::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
+    from . import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('wiki.views',
-        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/history/$', 'history'),
-        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/edit/$', 'edit'),
-        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/discuss/$', 'discuss'),
-        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/permissions/$', 'permissions'),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/history/$', views.history),
+        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/edit/$', views.edit),
+        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/discuss/$', views.discuss),
+        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/permissions/$', views.permissions),
+    ]
 
 We can improve this by stating the common path prefix only once and grouping
 the suffixes that differ::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import include, patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
+    from . import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/', include(patterns('wiki.views',
-            url(r'^history/$', 'history'),
-            url(r'^edit/$', 'edit'),
-            url(r'^discuss/$', 'discuss'),
-            url(r'^permissions/$', 'permissions'),
-        ))),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^(?P<page_slug>\w+)-(?P<page_id>\w+)/', include([
+            url(r'^history/$', views.history),
+            url(r'^edit/$', views.edit),
+            url(r'^discuss/$', views.discuss),
+            url(r'^permissions/$', views.permissions),
+        ])),
+    ]
 
 .. _`Django Web site`: https://www.djangoproject.com/
 
@@ -409,19 +341,20 @@ An included URLconf receives any captured parameters from parent URLconfs, so
 the following example is valid::
 
     # In settings/urls/main.py
-    from django.conf.urls import include, patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^(?P<username>\w+)/blog/', include('foo.urls.blog')),
-    )
+    ]
 
     # In foo/urls/blog.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
+    from . import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('foo.views',
-        url(r'^$', 'blog.index'),
-        url(r'^archive/$', 'blog.archive'),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^$', views.blog.index),
+        url(r'^archive/$', views.blog.archive),
+    ]
 
 In the above example, the captured ``"username"`` variable is passed to the
 included URLconf, as expected.
@@ -440,11 +373,12 @@ function.
 
 For example::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
+    from . import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('blog.views',
-        url(r'^blog/(?P<year>\d{4})/$', 'year_archive', {'foo': 'bar'}),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^blog/(?P<year>\d{4})/$', views.year_archive, {'foo': 'bar'}),
+    ]
 
 In this example, for a request to ``/blog/2005/``, Django will call
 ``blog.views.year_archive(request, year='2005', foo='bar')``.
@@ -472,36 +406,38 @@ For example, these two URLconf sets are functionally identical:
 Set one::
 
     # main.py
-    from django.conf.urls import include, patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^blog/', include('inner'), {'blogid': 3}),
-    )
+    ]
 
     # inner.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
+    from mysite import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        url(r'^archive/$', 'mysite.views.archive'),
-        url(r'^about/$', 'mysite.views.about'),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^archive/$', views.archive),
+        url(r'^about/$', views.about),
+    ]
 
 Set two::
 
     # main.py
-    from django.conf.urls import include, patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
+    from mysite import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^blog/', include('inner')),
-    )
+    ]
 
     # inner.py
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        url(r'^archive/$', 'mysite.views.archive', {'blogid': 3}),
-        url(r'^about/$', 'mysite.views.about', {'blogid': 3}),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^archive/$', views.archive, {'blogid': 3}),
+        url(r'^about/$', views.about, {'blogid': 3}),
+    ]
 
 Note that extra options will *always* be passed to *every* line in the included
 URLconf, regardless of whether the line's view actually accepts those options
@@ -517,38 +453,38 @@ supported -- you can pass any callable object as the view.
 
 For example, given this URLconf in "string" notation::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^archive/$', 'mysite.views.archive'),
         url(r'^about/$', 'mysite.views.about'),
         url(r'^contact/$', 'mysite.views.contact'),
-    )
+    ]
 
 You can accomplish the same thing by passing objects rather than strings. Just
 be sure to import the objects::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from mysite.views import archive, about, contact
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^archive/$', archive),
         url(r'^about/$', about),
         url(r'^contact/$', contact),
-    )
+    ]
 
 The following example is functionally identical. It's just a bit more compact
 because it imports the module that contains the views, rather than importing
 each view individually::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from mysite import views
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^archive/$', views.archive),
         url(r'^about/$', views.about),
         url(r'^contact/$', views.contact),
-    )
+    ]
 
 The style you use is up to you.
 
@@ -558,12 +494,12 @@ the view prefix (as explained in "The view prefix" above) will have no effect.
 Note that :doc:`class based views</topics/class-based-views/index>` must be
 imported::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from mysite.views import ClassBasedView
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^myview/$', ClassBasedView.as_view()),
-    )
+    ]
 
 Reverse resolution of URLs
 ==========================
@@ -618,13 +554,13 @@ Examples
 
 Consider again this URLconf entry::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         #...
         url(r'^articles/(\d{4})/$', 'news.views.year_archive'),
         #...
-    )
+    ]
 
 According to this design, the URL for the archive corresponding to year *nnnn*
 is ``/articles/nnnn/``.
@@ -670,13 +606,13 @@ It's fairly common to use the same view function in multiple URL patterns in
 your URLconf. For example, these two URL patterns both point to the ``archive``
 view::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from mysite.views import archive
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^archive/(\d{4})/$', archive),
         url(r'^archive-summary/(\d{4})/$', archive, {'summary': True}),
-    )
+    ]
 
 This is completely valid, but it leads to problems when you try to do reverse
 URL matching (through the :func:`~django.core.urlresolvers.reverse` function
@@ -691,13 +627,13 @@ matching.
 
 Here's the above example, rewritten to use named URL patterns::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import url
     from mysite.views import archive
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^archive/(\d{4})/$', archive, name="full-archive"),
         url(r'^archive-summary/(\d{4})/$', archive, {'summary': True}, name="arch-summary"),
-    )
+    ]
 
 With these names in place (``full-archive`` and ``arch-summary``), you can
 target each pattern individually by using its name:
@@ -859,20 +795,20 @@ This will include the URLs defined in ``apps.help.urls`` into the
 ``'foo'``.
 
 Secondly, you can include an object that contains embedded namespace data. If
-you ``include()`` an object as returned by :func:`~django.conf.urls.patterns`,
+you ``include()`` a list of :func:`django.conf.urls.url` instances,
 the URLs contained in that object will be added to the global namespace.
 However, you can also ``include()`` a 3-tuple containing::
 
-    (<patterns object>, <application namespace>, <instance namespace>)
+    (<list of url() instances>, <application namespace>, <instance namespace>)
 
 For example::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import include, patterns, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
 
-    help_patterns = patterns('',
+    help_patterns = [
         url(r'^basic/$', 'apps.help.views.views.basic'),
         url(r'^advanced/$', 'apps.help.views.views.advanced'),
-    )
+    ]
 
     url(r'^help/', include((help_patterns, 'bar', 'foo'))),
 
diff --git a/docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt b/docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt
index 16742ab622..3d48344643 100644
--- a/docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt
+++ b/docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt
@@ -911,13 +911,15 @@ URL. Paths listed in :setting:`LOCALE_PATHS` are also included.
 
 You hook it up like this::
 
+    from django.views.i18n import javascript_catalog
+
     js_info_dict = {
         'packages': ('your.app.package',),
     }
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^jsi18n/$', 'django.views.i18n.javascript_catalog', js_info_dict),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^jsi18n/$', javascript_catalog, js_info_dict),
+    ]
 
 Each string in ``packages`` should be in Python dotted-package syntax (the
 same format as the strings in :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`) and should refer to a
@@ -935,9 +937,9 @@ changed by altering the ``domain`` argument.
 
 You can make the view dynamic by putting the packages into the URL pattern::
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
-        (r'^jsi18n/(?P<packages>\S+?)/$', 'django.views.i18n.javascript_catalog'),
-    )
+    urlpatterns = [
+        url(r'^jsi18n/(?P<packages>\S+?)/$', javascript_catalog),
+    ]
 
 With this, you specify the packages as a list of package names delimited by '+'
 signs in the URL. This is especially useful if your pages use code from
@@ -1085,25 +1087,30 @@ Language prefix in URL patterns
 
 .. function:: i18n_patterns(prefix, pattern_description, ...)
 
-This function can be used in your root URLconf as a replacement for the normal
-:func:`django.conf.urls.patterns` function. Django will automatically
+.. deprecated:: 1.8
+
+    The ``prefix`` argument to ``i18n_patterns()`` has been deprecated and will
+    not be supported in Django 2.0. Simply pass a list of
+    :func:`django.conf.urls.url` instances instead.
+
+This function can be used in your root URLconf and Django will automatically
 prepend the current active language code to all url patterns defined within
 :func:`~django.conf.urls.i18n.i18n_patterns`. Example URL patterns::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
     from django.conf.urls.i18n import i18n_patterns
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns('',
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^sitemap\.xml$', 'sitemap.view', name='sitemap_xml'),
-    )
+    ]
 
-    news_patterns = patterns('',
+    news_patterns = [
         url(r'^$', 'news.views.index', name='index'),
         url(r'^category/(?P<slug>[\w-]+)/$', 'news.views.category', name='category'),
         url(r'^(?P<slug>[\w-]+)/$', 'news.views.details', name='detail'),
-    )
+    ]
 
-    urlpatterns += i18n_patterns('',
+    urlpatterns += i18n_patterns(
         url(r'^about/$', 'about.view', name='about'),
         url(r'^news/', include(news_patterns, namespace='news')),
     )
@@ -1144,21 +1151,21 @@ Translating URL patterns
 URL patterns can also be marked translatable using the
 :func:`~django.utils.translation.ugettext_lazy` function. Example::
 
-    from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
+    from django.conf.urls import include, url
     from django.conf.urls.i18n import i18n_patterns
     from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
 
-    urlpatterns = patterns(''
+    urlpatterns = [
         url(r'^sitemap\.xml$', 'sitemap.view', name='sitemap_xml'),
-    )
+    ]
 
-    news_patterns = patterns(''
+    news_patterns = [
         url(r'^$', 'news.views.index', name='index'),
         url(_(r'^category/(?P<slug>[\w-]+)/$'), 'news.views.category', name='category'),
         url(r'^(?P<slug>[\w-]+)/$', 'news.views.details', name='detail'),
-    )
+    ]
 
-    urlpatterns += i18n_patterns('',
+    urlpatterns += i18n_patterns(
         url(_(r'^about/$'), 'about.view', name='about'),
         url(_(r'^news/'), include(news_patterns, namespace='news')),
     )