Attached find new patches. I've made most of the changes requested,
with two small exceptions noted below:

On Mon, 17 Apr 2017 08:53:26 -0400 "Perry E. Metzger"
<perry@piermont.com> wrote:
> > I also think that using digits 0 and 1 is better than using the
> > words, but that's my personal preference, so if you feel strongly
> > about using words, I won't object.
>
> I'm used to the usual rule in English classes that one uses the
> written out words for small numbers, but this is technical
> documentation and I think I'll change it to the way you prefer.

So I read the surrounding documentation and docstrings, and it seems
that there is a consistent style, both in docstrings and in the
manuals, of saying "zero" and "one" rather than "0" and "1", so in
order to keep to the apparent style I will be leaving it as "zero" and
one".

I have made all your other proposed changes to the documentation.

I've renamed the variable column-number-indicator-zero-based as
suggested, though I'm wondering if we should say "display" instead of
"indicator" to match the documentation.

> > > +(defvar column-number-mode-starts-from-zero t
> > > +  "When set to true, Column Number mode displays columns
> > > starting from zero. +Otherwise, displayed column numbers start
> > > from one.")
> >
> > This should be a defcustom, not defvar.
>
> Easily fixed.

I've set it to :type 'boolean in :group 'mode-line (and have made all
your other proposed changes with one exception):

> > I think it's best to have
> > it in xdisp.c, where the feature is implemented, in which case you
> > should add the necessary stuff to cus-start.el to allow its
> > customization by Custom.
>
> I thought that since the rest of the lisp side was done there
> (including the minor mode) that it was better to have it in the .el
> file. Do you have a strong opinion?

Looking around, it seems that many such customization variables are in
simple.el already, and that there is a bias now towards putting code
into the lisp side and not the C side, so for now, my new patch leaves
it there.

Perry
-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry@piermont.com