Drop support for Python 3.7 end of year 2023

[idanov]

Description

Python's end of life for version 3.7 ends in June 2023 so we should be prepared, since a lot of packages might stop supporting 3.7, which will make our support for 3.7 more difficult. Therefore I would suggest we drop official support for 3.7 before June, and possibly with the release of 0.19. As a benefit, we can start using some nice features, as listed here. I am especially interested in the walrus operator, the improved support for typing, performance optimisations and last, but not least, importlib.metadata which can be super helpful for checking for installed versions of other Python packages (think of kedro-viz, kedro-datasets and other plugin compatibilities with kedro).

Context

To make sure we move along in pace with the rest of the ecosystem in Python.

Possible Implementation

Removing Python 3.7 support with Kedro 0.19.0.

Possible Alternatives

Waiting for Kedro 0.20.0 to drop Python 3.7 support.

[astrojuanlu]

+1 to removing Python 3.7 support with Kedro 0.19.0. But I think we should communicate this in the 0.18.x releases.

[astrojuanlu]

it looks like 3.7 is reaching end-of-life. Unless another security release happens in June, 3.7.17 will be the final release of Python 3.7.

https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-announce-list@python.org/message/XEQ7I3YDDXJJA3JSARTHFDCBVXD6CPHT/

[merelcht]

Done for core Kedro in #3060

Left to do:

• kedro-plugins
• kedro-starters

[astrojuanlu]

Development versions of plugins and starters no longer support Python 3.7 and the next releases will have Python 3.8+ or 3.9+ support #2815 closing

[merelcht]

This isn't done for kedro-datasets yet right? 1.8.0 has to be released first.

[astrojuanlu]

As far as I understand 3.7 was dropped already kedro-org/kedro-plugins#392 what we have to do now for kedro-datasets is drop 3.8 kedro-org/kedro-plugins#404

[lrcouto]

As far as I understand 3.7 was dropped already kedro-org/kedro-plugins#392 what we have to do now for kedro-datasets is drop 3.8 kedro-org/kedro-plugins#404

We left kedro-datasets to be done on a separate PR, since it depended on the release.

[astrojuanlu]

I stand corrected, thanks @lrcouto 👍🏽

[merelcht]

This is completed now kedro-org/kedro-plugins#419 has been merged 🎉