Merge pull request #1464 from bjorng/bjorn/bit-syntax-doc/ERL-387

Improve bit syntax example page

1 files changed, 9 insertions, 12 deletions

diff --git a/system/doc/programming_examples/bit_syntax.xml b/system/doc/programming_examples/bit_syntax.xml
index 0af295b7b7..98ad2808cf 100644
--- a/system/doc/programming_examples/bit_syntax.xml
+++ b/system/doc/programming_examples/bit_syntax.xml
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
 
   <section>
     <title>Introduction</title>
+    <p>The complete specification for the bit syntax appears in the
+    <seealso marker="doc/reference_manual:expressions#bit_syntax">Reference Manual</seealso>.</p>
     <p>In Erlang, a Bin is used for constructing binaries and matching
       binary patterns. A Bin is written with the following syntax:</p>
     <code type="none"><![CDATA[
@@ -45,7 +47,7 @@ Bin = <<E1, E2, ... En>>]]></code>
 <<E1, E2, ... En>> = Bin ]]></code>
     <p>Here, <c>Bin</c> is bound and the elements are bound or
       unbound, as in any match.</p>
-    <p>Since Erlang R12B, a Bin does not need to consist of a whole number of bytes.</p>
+    <p>A Bin does not need to consist of a whole number of bytes.</p>
 
     <p>A <em>bitstring</em> is a sequence of zero or more bits, where
     the number of bits does not need to be divisible by 8. If the number
@@ -165,8 +167,9 @@ end.]]></code>
       separated by hyphens.</p>
     <taglist>
       <tag>Type</tag>
-      <item>The type can be <c>integer</c>, <c>float</c>, or
-      <c>binary</c>.</item>
+      <item>The most commonly used types are <c>integer</c>, <c>float</c>, and <c>binary</c>.
+      See <seealso marker="doc/reference_manual:expressions#bit_syntax">Bit Syntax Expressions in the Reference Manual</seealso> for a complete description.
+</item>
       <tag>Signedness</tag>
       <item>The signedness specification can be either <c>signed</c>
        or <c>unsigned</c>. Notice that signedness only matters for
@@ -181,7 +184,7 @@ end.]]></code>
       <item>The unit size is given as <c>unit:IntegerLiteral</c>.
        The allowed range is 1-256. It is multiplied by
        the <c>Size</c> specifier to give the effective size of
-       the segment. Since Erlang R12B, the unit size specifies the alignment
+       the segment. The unit size specifies the alignment
        for binary segments without size.</item>
     </taglist>
     <p><em>Example:</em></p>
@@ -319,21 +322,15 @@ foo(<<A:8,Rest/bitstring>>) ->]]></code>
 
   <section>
     <title>Appending to a Binary</title>
-    <p>Since Erlang R12B, the following function for creating a binary out of
-    a list of triples of integers is efficient:</p>
+    <p>Appending to a binary in an efficient way can be done as follows:</p>
     <code type="none"><![CDATA[
 triples_to_bin(T) ->
     triples_to_bin(T, <<>>).
 
 triples_to_bin([{X,Y,Z} | T], Acc) ->
-    triples_to_bin(T, <<Acc/binary,X:32,Y:32,Z:32>>);   % inefficient before R12B
+    triples_to_bin(T, <<Acc/binary,X:32,Y:32,Z:32>>);
 triples_to_bin([], Acc) -> 
     Acc.]]></code>
-    <p>In previous releases, this function was highly inefficient, because
-    the binary constructed so far (<c>Acc</c>) was copied in each recursion step.
-    That is no longer the case. For more information, see
-    <seealso marker="doc/efficiency_guide:introduction">
-    Efficiency Guide</seealso>.</p>
   </section>
 </chapter>