Docs: update GNU readline interface documentation to reflect that it is no longer supported

[jade-tea-h]

Summary

https://docs.python.org/3/library/readline.html
As per this issue (#118840), the python REPL after version 3.13 no longer supports readline. Readline can still be used if PYTHON_BASIC_REPL is set. The documentation should be changed to reflect this, it is rather difficult to understand why the example pythonrc.py on the page doesn't work otherwise.

Linked PRs

• gh-137113 docs: note readline no longer supported in REPL after 3.13 #137142

[Mariatta]

Moving this ticket to the CPython repo.

[Yuheng3107]

Hi, I'd like to start contributing to CPython and was hoping to work on this issue. I've previously contributed to an open source project with 6.9k stars. I have also read the developer's guide. Could I please be assigned this issue? Thanks!

[AA-Turner]

We don't assign issues (and star counts are neither here nor there). Feel free to have a stab, though.

A

[StanFromIreland]

Go ahead, anyone can start working on an issue if no one else says they have! We generally don't assign issues here.

[Yuheng3107]

Thank you, it is my first time trying to contribute to cpython. Will start work on this issue ASAP

[StanFromIreland]

There is a similar claim in the tutorial that needs to be removed.

[Yuheng3107]

The interpreter’s line-editing features include interactive editing, history substitution and code completion on systems that support the GNU Readline library.

Perhaps the quickest check to see whether command line editing is supported is typing Ctrl+P at the first Python prompt you get. If it beeps, you have command line editing; see Appendix Interactive Input Editing and History Substitution for an introduction to the keys.

If nothing appears to happen, or if ^P is echoed, command line editing isn’t available; you’ll only be able to use Backspace to remove characters from the current line.

Do I remove this entire block?