End of support: CPython 3.7

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As of 27 June 2024, Python 3.7 has been unsupported by the PSF for one year (since 2023-06-27, see https://devguide.python.org/versions/).

Consequently, the oldest CPython interpreter officially supported by vObject is now CPython 3.8.

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From a vObject development point of view, this enables the use of:

• the := syntax (aka the Walrus Operator)
• positional-only parameters using the / syntax
• the = syntax in f-strings (useful for debug logging)
• Various other things we're unlikely to use (see https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.8.html)

[da4089]

FWIW, here's the most evenly spread day from the recent download statistics at https://pypistats.org/packages/vobject

2024-10-04

Ver   Abs%   Abs#   Cum%

3.13   1.16   174   1.16 
3.12  17.53  2635  18.69
3.11  25.98  3905  44.67
3.10  13.63  2048  58.30
3.9   22.63  3402  80.93
3.8    9.78  1470  90.71
                          <--- below here now unsupported
3.7    3.31   498  94.02
3.6    0.98   147  95.00
3.5    0.07    10  95.07
3.4    0.0
3.3    0.0
3.2    0.0
3.1    0.0
3.0    0.0
2.7    2.31   347  97.38

On other days, the spread is much wider: eg. on 2024-09-29, 3.11 had 88.79% of all downloads.

The takeaway from this, for me, is that 3.7 and 3.6 still have some audience, and even if they're officially unsupported now. In combination with 2.7, they were still a bit more than 1 in 20 downloads on this particular day.