Switch off of deprecated pkg_resources library

[kdmccormick]

Background

The pkg_resources library, used by XBlock to load static assets, is deprecated. The removal timeline is unknown.

XBlock uses pkg_resources in a couple places.

XBlock also recommend pkg_resources in its docs: https://edx.readthedocs.io/projects/xblock-tutorial/en/latest/anatomy/python.html

To do

First, choose a new resource loading interface. Options:

• Use importlib.resources. Unfortunately, this will become deprecated in Python 3.11 and replaced with a yet-to-be-determined interface.
• Wait until Python 3.11, and then switch to the 3.11 replacement.
• Merge xblock-utils into this repository. That library provides a ResourceLoader abstraction; adopt that.

Then:

• Update the docs to recommend the new interface.
• Update any uses of pkg_resources in this repo.
• Reach out to XBlock maintainers (including maintainers of edx-platform, which defines several XBlocks!) to request that they switch from pkg_resources to the new interface.

Related

• Merge openedx/xblock-utils library into openedx/XBlock #675
• Switch off of deprecated pkg_resources library #676

[farhan]

Its a duplicate story of following
#676