DEP: allow running python helper scripts with any Python 3.12.x patch version

[neutrinoceros]

pinning 3.12 exactly leads to issues with the latest versions of pipx, presumably since version 1.15.1 (ubuntu-latest currently ships 1.16.0)

close #409

xref: pypa/pipx#1953

[neutrinoceros]

validated at astropy/astropy#20122

[neutrinoceros]

unrelated linting issues are addressed at #411

[neutrinoceros]

Alternatively, we could also pin the version installed through actions/setup-python. Let me know if that's preferred !

[zacharyburnett]

this started failing for us as well yesterday afternoon, good to know there's a fix. Are we concerned about the virtualenv tox tests failing?

[zacharyburnett]

if the tests pass this should be good

[neutrinoceros]

I think the remaining failures are part stylistic (#411) and part due to a an unpinned version of coverage. I can probably address the latter in another PR too

[neutrinoceros]

I couldn't figure out the coverage issue yet. It's definitely unrelated though. I suggest merging and releasing what's already fixed if possible.

[zacharyburnett]

@braingram brought up a good point, shouldn't this patch version specifier be ~=3.12.0 or >=3.12,==3.12.*?

the docs at https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/specifications/version-specifiers/#compatible-release suggest that ~=3.12 would be equivalent to >=3.12,==3.*

[neutrinoceros]

Thank you ! In that case I think I'd rather pin Python itself

[neutrinoceros]

... though I would also need to change these lines, in a similar way, so scratch that

[neutrinoceros]

and to avoid any confusion around the meaning of ~= (which clearly wasn't obvious to me), I switched to an explicit interval.

[zacharyburnett]

and to avoid any confusion around the meaning of ~= (which clearly wasn't obvious to me), I switched to an explicit interval.

don't worry, I also thought it worked like that until brett brought it up lol