Python 3.11 Update

[lazka]

• Release schedule: https://peps.python.org/pep-0664/ (3.11.0 on 2022-10-03)
• News: https://docs.python.org/3.11/whatsnew/3.11.html

There are a lot of build system changes/improvements because of wasm, which means more work to rebase, but should help us in the long run (more auto detection, more pkg-config). The new frozen core modules also look like that could be tricky... we'll see.

Checklist:

• Drop windows 7 related patches
• Drop iscygpty patches (??)
• Regenerate Importlib
• Fix New venv launchers are broken #90

[naveen521kk]

Also, python#29041

[lazka]

afaik lots of modules have been ported from setup.py to autotools. Should make it easier in the long run, but might make this update a bit harder. See https://bugs.python.org/issue45847

[renpytom]

How necessary is dropping the Window 7-related patches? I use cpython-mingw for the windows port of Ren'Py, the 5th most popular game engine, and Windows 7 seems to still be used on about 3.7% of computers, according to the Steam Hardware Survey:

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam (And click the OS Version dropdown.)

I realize windows 7 is getting a bit up there in years, but it still has its users, such that if dropping it can be delayed, that would be useful. Thank you for your consideration.

[ZachBacon]

To be honest it's not just this, it's also a wide Variety of projects dropping windows 7. In my opinion it just needs to be like a bandaid, you gotta rip it off sooner or later. That being said, not my say.

[naveen521kk]

Python 3.11 would take ~6-8 months to get into msys2 repos as the default version. We planned to drop support based on Chrome's support date for Windows 7 and Edge's support date, which is till January 15, 2023. The assumption was if they don't have secure browsers to use then that OS support should be dropped.

[lazka]

All done now.

Windows 7 support was dropped, iscygpty support is still there.