spyder dependency on python3-importlib-metadata

[Julian Gilbey]

Hi Alexandre,

On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 03:27:46PM +0100, Julian Gilbey wrote:
> Hi Alexandre,
> 
> Thanks for trying to tidy up Python packages!  Please can I request
> that in future, before you try dropping dependencies from packages
> (especially this far into the freeze), that you check carefully why
> the dependency is present?  In the case of spyder (python3-spyder),
> the dependency on python3-importlib-metadata is essential, and is used
> throughout the code; at least the following files require it (via
> spyder/utils/programs.py), and there may well be others too:
> [...]

Oh, I spoke too soon - my apologies.  I had forgotten that
importlib.metadata is part of the standard library, so it may well be
that there is now need to import the PyPI version of the library.  But
as you discovered, there may be subtle assumptions within spyder that
it is the external version rather than the standard library version
that is being used.

Once trixie is released, we can look at this again and potentially
discuss with upstream.  (Upstream supports lots of versions of Python,
from Python 3.8 upwards, and they depend on importlib-metadata >=
4.6.0, which was incorporated into stdlib from Python 3.10.  Once they
drop the support for Python 3.8, presumably at some point during the
next Debian release cycle, it may be easier.)

Best wishes,

   Julian