Why aren't copy and deepcopy in __builtins__?

[Andrea Crotti]

John Ladasky <ladasky at my-deja.com> writes:

> Simple question.  I use these functions much more frequently than many
> others which are included in __builtins__.  I don't know if my
> programming needs are atypical, but my experience has led me to wonder
> why I have to import these functions.

I almost never use them either, maybe also in many cases you could avoid
using them...
When for example you use them?

I noticed some time ago in a program that needed speed that deepcopy in
particular is incredibly slow, but I guess is normal since it has to
copy every bit of the data structure.