diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index c8e154ef..3ec53608 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2005-10-17 Federico Di Gregorio <fog@initd.org>
+
+	* psycopg/connection_type.c: fixed docstring for .cursor().
+
+	* psycopg/psycopgmodule.c: added useful docstring for .connect().
+
 2005-10-08  Federico Di Gregorio  <fog@initd.org>
 
 	* psycopg/connection_type.c: isolation level upper bound set to 2.
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 1b2e8630..c717965d 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -5,6 +5,14 @@ What's new in psycopg 2.0 rc 1
 
 * Fixed all known bugs.
 
+* The initial isolation level is now read from the server and
+  .set_isolation_level() now takes values defined in psycopg2.extensions.
+  
+* .callproc() implemented as a SELECT of the given procedure.
+
+* Better docstrings for a few functions/methods.
+
+
 What's new in psycopg 2.0 beta 4
 --------------------------------
 
diff --git a/psycopg/connection_type.c b/psycopg/connection_type.c
index 8b185e60..7a32b8ba 100644
--- a/psycopg/connection_type.c
+++ b/psycopg/connection_type.c
@@ -37,10 +37,11 @@
 /* cursor method - allocate a new cursor */
 
 #define psyco_conn_cursor_doc \
-"cursor(factory=psycopg.cursor) -> new cursor\n\n" \
-"Return a new cursor. The 'factory' argument can be used to create\n" \
-"non-standard cursors by passing a class different from the default.\n" \
-"Note that the new class *should* be a sub-class of psycopg.cursor."
+"cursor(cursor_factory=psycopg.cursor) -> new cursor\n\n" \
+"Return a new cursor. The 'cursor_factory' argument can be used to\n"    \
+"create non-standard cursors by passing a class different from the\n"    \
+"default. Note that the new class *should* be a sub-class of\n"          \
+"'psycopg2.cursor'.\n"
 
 static PyObject *
 psyco_conn_cursor(connectionObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *keywds)
diff --git a/psycopg/psycopgmodule.c b/psycopg/psycopgmodule.c
index dcff7bc5..5702d1de 100644
--- a/psycopg/psycopgmodule.c
+++ b/psycopg/psycopgmodule.c
@@ -59,7 +59,27 @@ PyObject *psycoEncodings = NULL;
 PyObject *decimalType = NULL;
 
 /** connect module-level function **/
-#define psyco_connect_doc "connect(dsn, ...) -> new connection object"
+#define psyco_connect_doc \
+"connect(dsn, ...) -> new connection object\n\n" \
+"This function supports two different but equivalent sets of arguments.\n" \
+"A single data source name or 'dsn' string can be used to specify the\n"   \
+"connection parameters, as follows:\n\n"                                   \
+"    psycopg2.connect(\"dbname=xxx user=xxx ...\")\n\n"   \
+"If 'dsn' is not provided it is possible to pass the parameters as\n"      \
+"keyword arguments; e.g.,\n\n"                                             \
+"    psycopg2.connect(database='xxx', user='xxx', ...)\n\n"                \
+"The full list of available parameters is:\n\n"                            \
+"    dbname -- database name (only in 'dsn')\n"                            \
+"    database -- database name (only as keyword argument)\n"               \
+"    host -- host address (defaults to UNIX socket if not provided)\n"     \
+"    port -- port number (defaults to 5432 if not provided)\n"             \
+"    user -- user name used to authenticate\n"                             \
+"    password -- password used to authenticate\n"                          \
+"    sslmode -- SSL mode (see PostgreSQL documentation)\n\n"               \
+"If the 'connection_factory' keyword argument is not provided this\n"      \
+"function always return an instance of the 'psycopg2.connection' class.\n" \
+"Else the given sub-class of 'psycopg2.connection' will be used to\n"      \
+"instantiate the connection object.\n" 
 
 static int
 _psyco_connect_fill_dsn(char *dsn, char *kw, char *v, int i)
@@ -241,6 +261,7 @@ static encodingPair encodings[] = {
     {"SQL_ASCII",    "ascii"},
     {"LATIN1",       "latin_1"},
     {"UNICODE",      "utf_8"},
+    {"UTF8",         "utf_8"},
     /* some compatibility stuff */
     {"latin-1",      "latin_1"},