Release Pelican 4.9

[justinmayer]

The primary purpose of this issue is to collect information about the changes between Pelican 4.8 and the current code, in the interest of putting said changes in the eventual RELEASE.md file that will be pushed to close this issue and trigger the Pelican 4.9 release.

I've added the first and last items to the list below. Help with filling out the remaining items in-between (based on the linked change list above) would be really helpful and much appreciated!

* Upgrade code to new minimum supported Python version: 3.8
* Settings support for ``pathlib.Path`` `(#2758) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/2758>`_
* Simplify boolean ``if`` expressions `(#2944) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/2944>`_
* Various improvements to Simple theme `(#2976) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/2976>`_ & `(#3234) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3234>`_ 
* Use Furo as Sphinx documentation theme `(#3023) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3023>`_
* Maximum number of articles in feeds now defaults to 100 `(#3127) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3127>`_
* Implement period_archives common context variable `(#3148) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3148>`_
* Use ``watchfiles`` as a file watching backend `(#3151) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3151>`_
* Add rel='nofollow' to all external links in templates `(#3162) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3162>`_
* Add GitHub Actions workflow for GitHub Pages `(#3189) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3189>`_
* Allow dataclasses in settings `(#3204) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3204>`_
* Switch build tool to PDM instead of Setuptools/Poetry `(#3220) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3220>`_
* Restore items to ``sdist`` previously included via ``MANIFEST.in`` `(#3226) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3226>`_
* Add CI job to test wheel & sdist builds `(#3229) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3229>`_
* Provide a ``plugin_enabled`` Jinja test for themes `(#3235) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3235>`_
* Preserve connection order in Blinker `(#3238) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3238>`_
* Remove social icons from default ``notmyidea`` theme `(#3240) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3240>`_
* Importer: Report broken embedded video links when importing from Tumblr `(#3177) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/issues/3177>`_
* Importer: Remove newline addition when iterating Photo post types `(#3178) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/issues/3178>`_
* Importer: Force timestamp conversion in Tumblr importer to be UTC with offset `(#3221) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3221>`_
* Importer: Use tempfile for intermediate HTML file for Pandoc `(#3221) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3221>`_
* Switch linters to Ruff `(#3223) <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican/pull/3223>`_

[justinmayer]

Pelican 4.9 has been released 🎉

[pauloxnet]

Congratulations, that's a huge release. 👏🏻

[pauloxnet]

@justinmayer, will you write a post to announce the release of this version of Pelican? I ask this so that I can share it?

[justinmayer]

I plan to publish a post about the new release, perhaps tomorrow or Tuesday. I'll post a comment here once the release announcement is live. 😊

[pauloxnet]

Perfect 👍

[justinmayer]

@pauloxnet: I announced the release here: https://ramble.space/@justin/111415815073692492

[pauloxnet]

Thanks. I'll read it and then I'll share it

[pauloxnet]

@pauloxnet: I announced the release here: https://ramble.space/@justin/111415815073692492

@justinmayer I published an article about the Simple theme in the new Pelican 4.9
https://www.paulox.net/2023/11/30/pelican-4.9-classless-simple-theme/