python-vxi11: incompatible with python 3.13 and likely unmaintained

[trappitsch]

As mentioned in #427, python-vxi11, which ik depends on, is broken in python 3.13 because it depends on xdrlib, which has been removed in 3.13 from the standard library.
Furthermore, python-vxi11 also seems to be not maintained anymore. Last commit was ~7 years ago and 10 open PRs that proposed various fixes over the years for issues that have come up, i.e., an xdrlib replacement fix. Contacting the author has been tried some years ago, but not resulted in anything (see here).

Note for the future:
Looking through our dependencies, this will most likely happen sooner or later as well with python-usbtmc, which comes from the same author(s) as python-vxi11. Similar story here, no commits in ~7 years and 9 open PRs, however, it doesn't seem broken at this point under 3.13.

What to do?

A quick search on pypi revealed no clear alternative solution for our issue. Since we depend on python-vxi11 and probably don't want to drop support for these devices, I think it would be reasonable to discuss maintaining a fork of the project in the ik organization. python-vxi11 is MIT licensed, so this should all be fine. A first push, just to get it compatible without errors and warnings would be:

• Create a maintained fork under a new name (that can also be released on pypi)
• Add xdrlib3 as a dependency (the first one) to replace the removed xdrlib: I tested this, it's plug and play.
• Fix the regex warnings.
• Drop nose and add pytest in order to get the (very sparse) test suite to pass.
• Cleanup and modernization of repo
  • Docs - go through, clean up, put on rtd
  • Installation - turn into pyproject.toml based project (easy, as there's going to be basically one dependency).

Down the line and in order to maintain it easily, we'd have to add a better test suite and even might want to declare certain parts (e.g., the CLI interface) as unmaintained...

I think it would make some sense to put this in the ik organization, as there is already a community around ik, which would make it more sustainable in the future. I'd be happy to do a push for implementing these first fixes / modernizations and to help with maintaining, but let's discuss this in more detail first.

[scasagrande]

This is actually very good for me to know, because I found something at work that depends on python-vxi11 😂

I think you're right, it should be easy for us to take on a fork. py-vxi11? what are we thinking

[scasagrande]

i'll try to email the author and see if they have any plans

http://www.alexforencich.com/wiki/en/start
https://github.com/alexforencich

[trappitsch]

Sounds great, thanks! Yes, an e-mail would for sure be a good and nice thing to do first. If there's no answer, py-vxi11 sounds great - it's even shorter :)

[trappitsch]

@scasagrande Any news on this / answer? Just checking in, feel free to ignore ;)

[trappitsch]

Any update here @scasagrande?

[scasagrande]

I actually forgot to contact the author, whoops! However in the mean time can we try the temporary migration fix mentioned here: python-ivi/python-vxi11#49 (comment)