Deprecate distutils in favor of setuptools

[matthewfeickert]

🚀 Feature

In CPython 3.10 distutils was formally marked as deprecated and it will be removed from CPython in 3.12. To avoid complications, deprecate use of distutils moving forward in favor of using setuptools as recommended.

For Python 3.7+ (which should by default have pip v22.0.0+ and setuptools v57.5.0+) use:

• setuptools._distutils over distutils

Additional supporting advice given in:

• https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/deprecated/distutils-legacy.html
• https://peps.python.org/pep-0632/#migration-advice

Relevant for (nicely only!)

POT/ot/helpers/openmp_helpers.py

Line 12 in 1f7d547

from distutils.errors import CompileError, LinkError

Motivation

Use of

POT/ot/helpers/openmp_helpers.py

Line 12 in 1f7d547

from distutils.errors import CompileError, LinkError

fails in Python 3.12 given distutils is gone.

Pitch

Remove all use of distutils.

Alternatives

Additional context