Improve documentation for the copy module

[ferdnyc]

Documentation

In the copy module documentation, the function copy.replace() has a .. versionadded:: annotation marking it as new in Python 3.13.

But the related object.__replace__ dunder method — which is documented muuuuuch farther down the page, near the very end — has no such annotation.

IMHO the two are too far apart and separated by too much completely unrelated documentation, for the annotation from copy.replace() to be implicitly applicable to object.__replace__ as well.

Module-level organization of content

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure it makes sense for copy.replace() to eventually be documented so far from where it's initially introduced. Especially considering how brief that documentation actually is, the separation may do more harm than good.

No other module in the "Data Types" section starts with an "Interface summary:" like the one in the copy documentation. The most similar doc is the enum module's, which has a §Module Contents at the start. But there inline version annotations are skipped to keep the TOC concise, instead they're collected down below the list itself. Relevant annotations are also included in the detailed documentation sections that follow.

The organization of the copy docs is sort of... well, there's much less organization there, than in the documentation for other modules. (Probably attributable to both the age and extremely short length of the copy documentation.)

Linked PRs

• gh-134559: Add versionadded to object.__replace__ #134672
• gh-134559: Expand and reorganise documentation for the copy module #134695
• [3.14] gh-134559: Add versionadded for object.__replace__() (GH-134672) #134699
• [3.13] gh-134559: Add versionadded for object.__replace__() (GH-134672) #134700

[AA-Turner]

Do you have a suggested (re-)structure?

A

[tmlnv]

Hi!
I’ve addressed the first part of the issue by adding a .. versionadded:: 3.13 annotation to object.__replace__.
Because @ferdnyc hasn’t shared a restructuring proposal yet, I’ve left the rest of the documentation unchanged.

[ferdnyc]

Jeez, c'mon guys... it's the weekend. 😀

But, here you go: My first stab at reorganized docs. Which got involved enough that I just decided to open a PR with the changes: #134695