Merge branch 'maint'

1 files changed, 46 insertions, 43 deletions

diff --git a/system/doc/reference_manual/typespec.xml b/system/doc/reference_manual/typespec.xml
index ced584ed35..a0ea41cb3b 100644
--- a/system/doc/reference_manual/typespec.xml
+++ b/system/doc/reference_manual/typespec.xml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
       Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
       you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
       You may obtain a copy of the License at
- 
+
           http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
       Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@
       Types consist of, and are built from, a set of predefined types,
       for example, <c>integer()</c>, <c>atom()</c>, and <c>pid()</c>.
       Predefined types represent a typically infinite set of Erlang terms that
-      belong to this type.  For example, the type <c>atom()</c> stands for the
+      belong to this type.  For example, the type <c>atom()</c> denotes the
       set of all Erlang atoms.
     </p>
     <p>
@@ -131,19 +131,19 @@
         | nonempty_improper_list(Type1, Type2) %% Type1 and Type2 as above
         | nonempty_list(Type)                  %% Proper non-empty list
 
-  Map :: map()                                 %% stands for a map of any size
-       | #{}                                   %% stands for the empty map
+  Map :: map()                                 %% denotes a map of any size
+       | #{}                                   %% denotes the empty map
        | #{PairList}
 
-  Tuple :: tuple()                             %% stands for a tuple of any size
+  Tuple :: tuple()                             %% denotes a tuple of any size
          | {}
          | {TList}
 
   PairList :: Pair
             | Pair, PairList
 
-  Pair :: Type := Type                         %% denotes a pair that must be present
-        | Type => Type
+  Pair :: Type := Type                         %% denotes a mandatory pair
+        | Type => Type                         %% denotes an optional pair
 
   TList :: Type
          | Type, TList
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@
     that <c>M</c> or <c>N</c>, or both, are zero.
   </p>
   <p>
-    Because lists are commonly used, they have shorthand type notations. 
+    Because lists are commonly used, they have shorthand type notations.
     The types <c>list(T)</c> and <c>nonempty_list(T)</c> have the shorthands
     <c>[T]</c> and <c>[T,...]</c>, respectively.
     The only difference between the two shorthands is that <c>[T]</c> can be an
@@ -169,14 +169,18 @@
   </p>
   <p>
     Notice that the shorthand for <c>list()</c>, that is, the list of
-    elements of unknown type, is <c>[_]</c> (or <c>[any()]</c>), not <c>[]</c>. 
+    elements of unknown type, is <c>[_]</c> (or <c>[any()]</c>), not <c>[]</c>.
     The notation <c>[]</c> specifies the singleton type for the empty list.
   </p>
   <p>
     The general form of maps is <c>#{PairList}</c>. The key types in
     <c>PairList</c> are allowed to overlap, and if they do, the
     leftmost pair takes precedence. A map pair has a key in
-    <c>PairList</c> if it belongs to this type.
+    <c>PairList</c> if it belongs to this type. A <c>PairList</c> may contain
+    both 'mandatory' and 'optional' pairs where 'mandatory' denotes that
+    a key type, and its associated value type, must be present.
+    In the case of an 'optional' pair it is not required for the key type to
+    be present.
   </p>
   <p>
     Notice that the syntactic representation of <c>map()</c> is
@@ -184,8 +188,8 @@
     The notation <c>#{}</c> specifies the singleton type for the empty map.
   </p>
   <p>
-    For convenience, the following types are also built-in. 
-    They can be thought as predefined aliases for the type unions also shown in 
+    For convenience, the following types are also built-in.
+    They can be thought as predefined aliases for the type unions also shown in
     the table.
   </p>
   <table>
@@ -201,37 +205,37 @@
     <row>
       <cell><c>bitstring()</c></cell><cell><c>&lt;&lt;_:_*1&gt;&gt;</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>boolean()</c></cell><cell><c>'false' | 'true'</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>byte()</c></cell><cell><c>0..255</c></cell>
     </row>
     <row>
       <cell><c>char()</c></cell><cell><c>0..16#10ffff</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>nil()</c></cell><cell><c>[]</c></cell>
     </row>
     <row>
       <cell><c>number()</c></cell><cell><c>integer() | float()</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>list()</c></cell><cell><c>[any()]</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>maybe_improper_list()</c></cell><cell><c>maybe_improper_list(any(), any())</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>nonempty_list()</c></cell><cell><c>nonempty_list(any())</c></cell>
     </row>
     <row>
       <cell><c>string()</c></cell><cell><c>[char()]</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>nonempty_string()</c></cell><cell><c>[char(),...]</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>iodata()</c></cell><cell><c>iolist() | binary()</c></cell>
     </row>
     <row>
@@ -243,7 +247,7 @@
     <row>
       <cell><c>module()</c></cell><cell><c>atom()</c></cell>
     </row>
-    <row> 
+    <row>
       <cell><c>mfa()</c></cell><cell><c>{module(),atom(),arity()}</c></cell>
     </row>
     <row>
@@ -259,7 +263,7 @@
       <cell><c>timeout()</c></cell><cell><c>'infinity' | non_neg_integer()</c></cell>
     </row>
     <row>
-      <cell><c>no_return()</c></cell><cell><c>none()</c></cell> 
+      <cell><c>no_return()</c></cell><cell><c>none()</c></cell>
     </row>
     <tcaption>Built-in types, predefined aliases</tcaption>
   </table>
@@ -284,11 +288,11 @@
     </row>
     <tcaption>Additional built-in types</tcaption>
   </table>
-  
+
   <p>
     Users are not allowed to define types with the same names as the
     predefined or built-in ones. This is checked by the compiler and
-    its violation results in a compilation error. 
+    its violation results in a compilation error.
   </p>
   <note>
     <p>
@@ -394,13 +398,13 @@
     <pre>
   -record(rec, {field1 :: Type1, field2, field3 :: Type3}).</pre>
     <p>
-      For fields without type annotations, their type defaults to any(). 
+      For fields without type annotations, their type defaults to any().
       That is, the previous example is a shorthand for the following:
     </p>
     <pre>
   -record(rec, {field1 :: Type1, field2 :: any(), field3 :: Type3}).</pre>
     <p>
-      In the presence of initial values for fields, 
+      In the presence of initial values for fields,
       the type must be declared after the initialization, as follows:
     </p>
     <pre>
@@ -409,12 +413,12 @@
       The initial values for fields are to be compatible
       with (that is, a member of) the corresponding types.
       This is checked by the compiler and results in a compilation error
-      if a violation is detected. 
+      if a violation is detected.
     </p>
     <note>
       <p>Before Erlang/OTP 19, for fields without initial values,
       the singleton type <c>'undefined'</c> was added to all declared types.
-      In other words, the following two record declarations had identical 
+      In other words, the following two record declarations had identical
       effects:</p>
     <pre>
   -record(rec, {f1 = 42 :: integer(),
@@ -430,22 +434,22 @@
     </p>
     </note>
     <p>
-      Any record, containing type information or not, once defined, 
+      Any record, containing type information or not, once defined,
       can be used as a type using the following syntax:
     </p>
     <pre>  #rec{}</pre>
     <p>
-      In addition, the record fields can be further specified when using 
+      In addition, the record fields can be further specified when using
       a record type by adding type information about the field
       as follows:
     </p>
     <pre>  #rec{some_field :: Type}</pre>
     <p>
-      Any unspecified fields are assumed to have the type in the original 
+      Any unspecified fields are assumed to have the type in the original
       record declaration.
     </p>
   </section>
-	
+
   <section>
     <title>Specifications for Functions</title>
     <p>
@@ -459,9 +463,9 @@
       else a compilation error occurs.
     </p>
     <p>
-      This form can also be used in header files (.hrl) to declare type 
-      information for exported functions. 
-      Then these header files can be included in files that (implicitly or 
+      This form can also be used in header files (.hrl) to declare type
+      information for exported functions.
+      Then these header files can be included in files that (implicitly or
       explicitly) import these functions.
     </p>
     <p>
@@ -475,14 +479,14 @@
     <pre>
   -spec Function(ArgName1 :: Type1, ..., ArgNameN :: TypeN) -> RT.</pre>
     <p>
-      A function specification can be overloaded. 
+      A function specification can be overloaded.
       That is, it can have several types, separated by a semicolon (<c>;</c>):
     </p>
     <pre>
   -spec foo(T1, T2) -> T3
          ; (T4, T5) -> T6.</pre>
     <p>
-      A current restriction, which currently results in a warning 
+      A current restriction, which currently results in a warning
       (not an error) by the compiler, is that the domains of
       the argument types cannot overlap.
       For example, the following specification results in a warning:
@@ -491,9 +495,9 @@
   -spec foo(pos_integer()) -> pos_integer()
          ; (integer()) -> integer().</pre>
     <p>
-      Type variables can be used in specifications to specify relations for 
-      the input and output arguments of a function. 
-      For example, the following specification defines the type of a 
+      Type variables can be used in specifications to specify relations for
+      the input and output arguments of a function.
+      For example, the following specification defines the type of a
       polymorphic identity function:
     </p>
     <pre>
@@ -542,8 +546,8 @@
   -spec foo({X, integer()}) -> X when X :: atom()
          ; ([Y]) -> Y when Y :: number().</pre>
     <p>
-      Some functions in Erlang are not meant to return; 
-      either because they define servers or because they are used to 
+      Some functions in Erlang are not meant to return;
+      either because they define servers or because they are used to
       throw exceptions, as in the following function:
     </p>
     <pre>  my_error(Err) -> erlang:throw({error, Err}).</pre>
@@ -555,4 +559,3 @@
     <pre>  -spec my_error(term()) -> no_return().</pre>
   </section>
 </chapter>
-