Supported python versions?

[ThomasWaldmann]

Guess we should discuss what the supported python versions should be.

README: 3.3+

Pypi package metadata: https://pypi.org/project/pkgconfig/ inconsistent: >=3.3 <4.0 at one place, >=3.4 <=3.9 at another.

Poetry: seems to suggest >= 3.3.

Tox: py33 .. py312

One approach would be to assume "not tested == broken" and then adjust the supported versions to exactly what is tested in CI.

[ThomasWaldmann]

Note: #70 implemented CI tests on py38,39,310,311,312.

[ThomasWaldmann]

py38 will run out of upstream support at 2024-10 (see https://www.python.org/downloads/ ).

All older versions are upstream-unsupported already, but maybe get support from Linux or other distributors still?

Considering that pkgconfig can be quite essential for building other packages and some people run stuff on very old systems (like old, but still supported RHEL), I guess we shouldn't kick out upstream-unsupported pythons immediately - as long as "supporting" (CI testing) on them does not cause pains.

[ThomasWaldmann]

BTW, would be good to decide on this / get this consistent BEFORE next pypi.org release, so that the metadata there will be also fixed.

[ThomasWaldmann]

RHEL7 is still supported, older versions are not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux

Python 3 is distributed in versions 3.6, 3.8, and 3.9, provided by the python36, python38, and python39 modules on RHEL 7.

So, looks like even users of that rather old dist could easily work with py39.

[ThomasWaldmann]

@matze I can help with a PR making this all consistent, just need to know which python versions you want to support for pkgconfig.

[matze]

IMHO dropping everything EOL'd or close to is fine. So Python 3.9+ is okay 👍 Thanks for taking the lead in this!