Supported python versions (drop 3.7 and add 3.12?)

[Michael-J-Ward]

In upgrading maturin in #725, I noticed that nixos no longer includes python 3.7 in its packages. Hence, I was able to upgrade requirements.txt for 3.10 and 3.11 but left python 3.7 unchanged.

Before getting a docker container setup to update, I'd like to verify that it is actually needed. There doesn't seem to be alignment on the various python versions we use for building and testing.

Summarizing the different versions used in the github actions

• test.yml
  • tests for 3.7, 3.10, and 3.11
  • Note, I think that this is the only action that uses the python-specific locked requirements files.
• conda.yml
  • builds for ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11"]
• build.yml
  • 3.11 (for build which actually just lints with ruff check)
  • 3.10 (for build-python-mac-win, build-macos-aarch64)
  • build-manylinux build-manylinux-aarch64 and build-sdist all use pyo3/maturin action, which I don't think builds for/with a specific version of python

Question

Is python 3.7 support "special" for any reason, or can we drop it?

Should we add python 3.12 to the test or conda actions?

[Michael-J-Ward]

Additional context:

Python 3.7 is officially in "end-of-life" status. Python 3.8 will reach EOL in 2024-10.

https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle