Once upon a time, Idle was versioned separately from Python, though updated in lockstep with Python (#1515164, Martin's comment). The version was kept in idlever.py, with one line
IDLE_VERSION = "m.n.p"

Several years ago, the separate versioning was dropped (or decreed to be the same as the Python version -- no issue for this). idlever.py was kept and made to contain the initial part of sys.version (sys.version.split()[0]).  It gets patched as part of the version bump process,  Most recently 80ccce248ba2 (Benjamin) and 413e0e0004f4 (Larry). Is that part of an automated script?

The only current use of idlever is for the About Idle box (aboutDialog.py), which prints two lines with redundant information:
'Python version:  ' + sys.version.split()[0]
'IDLE version:   ' + idlever.IDLE_VERSION

idlever.py is not needed and I intend to remove it.  But before or as I do, its patching needs to be removed from the version bump process.

I would also like to remove "IDLE version ..." from the dialog box, but even if not, idlever.py is not needed.