DEP: Python 3.8+

[snowman2]

Related #2252

Community references:

• NEP-29 says numpy dropped support for Python 3.7 in December 2021.
• pyproj (DEP: Python 3.7 support pyproj4/pyproj#930)
• geopandas (Drop Python 3.7 geopandas/geopandas#2391)
• pandas (Drop support for Python 3.7 pandas-dev/pandas#41678)
• xarray (DEP: Drop Python 3.7 Support pydata/xarray#6138)
• opendatacube (Consider bumping the minimum Python version opendatacube/datacube-core#1190)
• django ref
• rioxarray (DEP: Drop Python 3.7 support corteva/rioxarray#451)

[snowman2]

Thoughts about going 3.8+ in the 1.3 release? With Python 3.11 coming in the fall, it would be nice to have a smaller matrix.

[sgillies]

@snowman2 do you mean just not test against and build wheels for 3.7, or do you mean permit ourselves to use Python 3.8 features like the walrus operator in 1.3?

[snowman2]

do you mean just not test against and build wheels for 3.7, or do you mean permit ourselves to use Python 3.8 features like the walrus operator in 1.3?

I am thinking we add python_version=">=3.8" in setup.py and drop support for previous Python versions (Wheels, CICD, etc ...).