diff --git a/lib/puppet/parser/functions/regsubst.rb b/lib/puppet/parser/functions/regsubst.rb
index f655db7b3..b6bb5afcf 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/parser/functions/regsubst.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/parser/functions/regsubst.rb
@@ -1,100 +1,93 @@
 module Puppet::Parser::Functions
 
   newfunction(
   :regsubst, :type => :rvalue,
 
   :doc => "
-  Perform regexp replacement on a string or array of strings.
+Perform regexp replacement on a string or array of strings.
 
 * *Parameters* (in order):
-
-    _target_  The string or array of strings to operate on.  If an array, the replacement will be performed on each of the elements in the array, and the return value will be an array.
-
-    _regexp_  The regular expression matching the target string.  If you want it anchored at the start and or end of the string, you must do that with ^ and $ yourself.
-
-    _replacement_  Replacement string. Can contain back references to what was matched using \\0, \\1, and so on.
-
-    _flags_  Optional. String of single letter flags for how the regexp is interpreted:
-
+    * _target_  The string or array of strings to operate on.  If an array, the replacement will be performed on each of the elements in the array, and the return value will be an array.
+    * _regexp_  The regular expression matching the target string.  If you want it anchored at the start and or end of the string, you must do that with ^ and $ yourself.
+    * _replacement_  Replacement string. Can contain backreferences to what was matched using \\0 (whole match), \\1 (first set of parentheses), and so on.
+    * _flags_  Optional. String of single letter flags for how the regexp is interpreted:
         - *E*         Extended regexps
         - *I*         Ignore case in regexps
         - *M*         Multiline regexps
         - *G*         Global replacement; all occurrences of the regexp in each target string will be replaced.  Without this, only the first occurrence will be replaced.
-
-    _lang_  Optional.  How to handle multibyte characters.  A single-character string with the following values:
-
+    * _encoding_  Optional.  How to handle multibyte characters.  A single-character string with the following values:
         - *N*         None
         - *E*         EUC
         - *S*         SJIS
         - *U*         UTF-8
 
 * *Examples*
 
 Get the third octet from the node's IP address:
 
-    $i3 = regsubst($ipaddress,'^([0-9]+)[.]([0-9]+)[.]([0-9]+)[.]([0-9]+)$','\\3')
+    $i3 = regsubst($ipaddress,'^(\\d+)\\.(\\d+)\\.(\\d+)\\.(\\d+)$','\\3')
 
 Put angle brackets around each octet in the node's IP address:
 
     $x = regsubst($ipaddress, '([0-9]+)', '<\\1>', 'G')
 ") \
   do |args|
     unless args.length.between?(3, 5)
 
       raise(
         Puppet::ParseError,
 
           "regsubst(): got #{args.length} arguments, expected 3 to 5")
     end
     target, regexp, replacement, flags, lang = args
     reflags = 0
     operation = :sub
     if flags == nil
       flags = []
     elsif flags.respond_to?(:split)
       flags = flags.split('')
     else
 
       raise(
         Puppet::ParseError,
 
           "regsubst(): bad flags parameter #{flags.class}:`#{flags}'")
     end
     flags.each do |f|
       case f
       when 'G' then operation = :gsub
       when 'E' then reflags |= Regexp::EXTENDED
       when 'I' then reflags |= Regexp::IGNORECASE
       when 'M' then reflags |= Regexp::MULTILINE
       else raise(Puppet::ParseError, "regsubst(): bad flag `#{f}'")
       end
     end
     begin
       re = Regexp.compile(regexp, reflags, lang)
     rescue RegexpError, TypeError
 
       raise(
         Puppet::ParseError,
 
           "regsubst(): Bad regular expression `#{regexp}'")
     end
     if target.respond_to?(operation)
       # String parameter -> string result
       result = target.send(operation, re, replacement)
     elsif target.respond_to?(:collect) and
       target.respond_to?(:all?) and
       target.all? { |e| e.respond_to?(operation) }
       # Array parameter -> array result
       result = target.collect { |e|
         e.send(operation, re, replacement)
       }
     else
 
       raise(
         Puppet::ParseError,
 
           "regsubst(): bad target #{target.class}:`#{target}'")
     end
     return result
   end
 end
diff --git a/lib/puppet/parser/functions/split.rb b/lib/puppet/parser/functions/split.rb
index 52394095a..ad027865b 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/parser/functions/split.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/parser/functions/split.rb
@@ -1,29 +1,29 @@
 module Puppet::Parser::Functions
 
   newfunction(
   :split, :type => :rvalue,
 
     :doc => "\
 Split a string variable into an array using the specified split regexp.
 
-  Usage:
+*Example:*
 
     $string     = 'v1.v2:v3.v4'
     $array_var1 = split($string, ':')
     $array_var2 = split($string, '[.]')
     $array_var3 = split($string, '[.:]')
 
-$array_var1 now holds the result ['v1.v2', 'v3.v4'],
-while $array_var2 holds ['v1', 'v2:v3', 'v4'], and
-$array_var3 holds ['v1', 'v2', 'v3', 'v4'].
+`$array_var1` now holds the result `['v1.v2', 'v3.v4']`,
+while `$array_var2` holds `['v1', 'v2:v3', 'v4']`, and
+`$array_var3` holds `['v1', 'v2', 'v3', 'v4']`.
 
-Note that in the second example, we split on a string that contains
-a regexp meta-character (.), and that needs protection.  A simple
+Note that in the second example, we split on a literal string that contains
+a regexp meta-character (.), which must be escaped.  A simple
 way to do that for a single character is to enclose it in square
-brackets.") do |args|
+brackets; a backslash will also escape a single character.") do |args|
 
   raise Puppet::ParseError, ("split(): wrong number of arguments (#{args.length}; must be 2)") if args.length != 2
 
   return args[0].split(Regexp.compile(args[1]))
   end
 end