Replace setup.py with pyproject.toml

[janfb]

According to PEP 517 and PEP 621, package meta data should be specified in a pyproject.toml file. It should declare the build backend and the metadata (see https://drivendata.co/blog/python-packaging-2023 for a great explanation).

The pyproject.toml can replace the setup.py, environment.yml and setup.py. It is all we need to make the package locally installable via pip. We can also use it to specify additional linting and code formatting tools and their options.

I happy to add this soon, ideally before the hackathon.

Any thought @michaeldeistler , @manuelgloeckler ?

[michaeldeistler]

yup i'd be for that

[alvorithm]

Good idea. Also, check out rye.

[psteinb]

good idea! In my experience, pyproject.toml works quite well with more recent python versions. The documentation is not as comprehensible as I'd love it to be, but it is enough for most applications.

[janfb]

Thanks for the pointer to rye, @alvorithm looks like a great project!
I think it's kind off orthogonal to / more general than the packaging with pyproject.toml itself. I understand it as a tool for the user to set up their environment locally. I will definitively check it out myself and maybe we can recommend it as an alternative to using conda one day.

[janfb]

Thanks for sharing @psteinb
I think pyproject.toml is independent from the build backend itself -- it lets you specify the backend, which could be setuptools or something else, e.g., poetry-core, hatchling etc.

[janfb]

closed with #941