Remove python 3.8 support (Supports python 3.9, 3.10, 3.11) (#47)

.github/workflows/python-build.yml

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: ['3.8', '3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
+        python-version: ['3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
         os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
 
     steps:

README.md

@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ On our local machine the first thing we do is create a new conda environment. (Y
     $ conda create --name GPT
     $ source activate GPT
     (GPT) $ python --version
-    Python 3.8.3
+    Python 3.11.0
 ```
 
 Now we clone the repo locally.
@@ -172,7 +172,6 @@ classifiers=
     Natural Language :: English
     Operating System :: OS Independent
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3
-    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11
@@ -185,7 +184,7 @@ classifiers=
 
 [options]
 zip_safe = True
-python_requires = >= 3.8
+python_requires = >= 3.9
 packages = find:
 
 install_requires =
@@ -215,9 +214,7 @@ that in the long run the metadata moves to `pyproject.toml` and follows a differ
 [specification](https://packaging.python.org/specifications/core-metadata/).
 
 
-It's good practice to support at least two consecutive versions of python. Starting with 3.9, python is moving to an annual [release schedule](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0602/). The initial 3.x.0 release will be in early October and the first bug patch 3.x.1 in early December, second in February, and so on.  Since it takes many important packages some time to upgrade (e.g. numpy and tensorflow are often bottlenecks), one should probably plan to upgrade python support around the beginning of each year. Upgrading involves changing the python version numbers in the workflow tests and `config.cfg`, and then cleaning up any `__future__` or conditional imports, or other hacks added to maintain compatibility with older python releases. If you protected the master branch on github, and added required status checks, you'll need to update those too.
-
-Supporting older python versions is often a good idea, if you don't need the newest wizz-bang python features. We'll default to supporting python 3.8 onwards for now (Since Google's colab currently defaults to 3.8 (Dec 2022)).
+It's good practice to support at least two consecutive versions of python. Starting with 3.9, python is moving to an annual [release schedule](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0602/). The initial 3.x.0 release will be in early October and the first bug patch 3.x.1 in early December, second in February, and so on.  Since it takes many important packages some time to upgrade (e.g. numpy and tensorflow are often bottlenecks), one should probably plan to upgrade python support around the beginning of each year. Upgrading involves changing the python version numbers in the workflow tests and `config.cfg`, and then cleaning up any `__future__` or conditional imports, or other hacks added to maintain compatibility with older python releases. If you protected the master branch on github, and added required status checks, you'll need to update those too. Supporting older python versions is often a good idea, if you don't need the newest wizz-bang python features. 
 
 
 We can now install our package (as editable -e, so that the code in our repo is live).
@@ -244,7 +241,7 @@ __all__ = ["__version__", "importlib_metadata", "about"]
 
 # Backwards compatibility imports
 try:
-    # python >= 3.8
+    # python >= 3.9
     from importlib import metadata as importlib_metadata  # type: ignore
 except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover
     import importlib_metadata  # type: ignore  # noqa: F401
@@ -275,7 +272,7 @@ One of my tricks is to add a function to print the versions of the core upstream
 # Configuration (> python -m example_python_project.about)
 platform                 macOS-10.16-x86_64-i386-64bit
 example_python_project   0.0.0
-python                   3.8.8
+python                   3.10.3
 numpy                    1.20.1
 setuptools_scm           5.0.2
 pytest                   6.2.2
@@ -514,7 +511,7 @@ formats: []
 sphinx:
   configuration: docs/conf.py
 python:
-  version: 3.8
+  version: 3.9
 ```
 I've already got a readthedocs account, so setting up a new project takes but a few minutes. 
 
@@ -551,7 +548,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: ['3.8', '3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
+        python-version: ['3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v2

example_python_project/.github/workflows/python-build.yml

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: ['3.7', '3.8', '3.9', '3.10']
+        python-version: ['3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
         os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
 
     steps:

example_python_project/setup.cfg

@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ classifiers=
     Natural Language :: English
     Operating System :: OS Independent    
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3
-    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11    

{{cookiecutter.module_name}}/.github/workflows/python-build.yml

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: ['3.7', '3.8', '3.9', '3.10']
+        python-version: ['3.9', '3.10', '3.11']
         os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest]
 
     steps:

{{cookiecutter.module_name}}/.readthedocs.yml

@@ -3,4 +3,4 @@ formats: []
 sphinx:
   configuration: docs/conf.py
 python:
-  version: 3.8
+  version: 3.9

{{cookiecutter.module_name}}/setup.cfg

@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ classifiers=
     Natural Language :: English
     Operating System :: OS Independent    
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3
-    Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10
     Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11    
@@ -51,7 +50,7 @@ classifiers=
 
 [options]
 zip_safe = True
-python_requires = >= 3.8
+python_requires = >= 3.9
 packages = find:
 
 setup_requires =