Python 3.12 support

[IlyaHalsky]

What is the goal that you want to achieve by the request?
Python 3.12 came out on October 2, 2023, by default Ubuntu 24.04 now comes with Python 3.12. It would be nice to implement support for it.

Additional context
To my understanding from #422 the only thing holding back is genicam package, but I might be wrong.

[builder26]

I have a large project, depending on Harvesters and it's been a pain that there's no support for 3.12. We will be switching to other methods when we can, to avoid Harvesters.

[matthijsgeers-keysight]

I'd like to second this. I tried to get in touch with the maintainer of the genicam package at the maintainer e-mail address (genicam@list.stemmer-imaging.com), which seems to be the same address as the one for harvesters. However, the address is no longer in use. I've asked the owners of the domain about this address, but they don't seem to have any knowledge of it. Is @kazunarikudo still around? They seem to be the sole person responsible for both genicam and harvesters

[sunavlis]

Hi @matthijsgeers-keysight Thanks for the hint that the e-mail adress is not working anymore.

I will check to update to an actual one.

About the Python 3.12 release: We are working on the release and I would expect to have the tested binaries ready on approx. 1 month.

Actually we are working on a new build infrastructure where future updates would be available much faster. I have to say sorry that it take so long for this 3.12 release. It would be much better in the future, I promise it.

[TTMaDe]

I asked a genicam developer some weeks ago and he said a new genicam release is in the making and Python 3.12 support will be included but there was no timeline yet.

[matthijsgeers-keysight]

Hey @sunavlis , thank you for your insanely fast reply. Since only one person is listed as a member of the genicam organization on GitHub, it appears as if only they are working on these projects. It's good to hear the bus factor is being accounted for :)

Good news about the upcoming release! I was wondering, while you're at it, would it make sense to also include a release for Python 3.13? This was officially released last month (see https://devguide.python.org/versions/)

[sunavlis]

Ow, I just realized that we can manage who are public visible behind the "GenICam organization" on github. Right now, I configured me also as public member of the organization.

I can say, we are a bigger group working on the standard. I spend time to refactoring the whole python build infrastructure (of the genicam package). This allows as to create releases more efficient and faster...

Ans yes, we try to build python 3.13 as well. Since the release which I spoke is still on the old infrastructure which uses a few features depreciated in python 3.13 I'm not sure if we will finalize it. If the fixes small, than of course.

[psous32]

One question.!
Is the harvester and genicam compatible with python 3.11?

[Inkaros]

@paulosousa32
It is, we are using 3.11 while waiting for 3.12/3.13 support.

[psous32]

Ok, nice ! Because I'm having problems fetching the return buffer, which is always empty, and it could be due to my version of python.