Set a minimum supported Python version

[disinvite]

Which Python version should be the oldest supported by reccmp?

3.10 or 3.11 seem like the most logical options: https://devguide.python.org/versions/

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Background:

For our CI task runners, if a specific version is not installed with actions/setup-python@v5, the default Python version for ubuntu-latest is 3.10.12. For windows-latest it is 3.9.13.
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/ubuntu/Ubuntu2204-Readme.md
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/main/images/windows/Windows2022-Readme.md

ubuntu-latest will soon (Jan 17) update to 24.04, with a default python version of 3.12. actions/runner-images#10636

All the CI scripts on the isle repo that use Python specify Python 3.12. Our "format" script (black, pylint, mypy) is the only one to not specify a version. It runs ubuntu-latest so the version is 3.10 until next Friday when it will start using 3.12.

The effective minimum version for reccmp is 3.10 because we use union type syntax and match/case statements.

[jonschz]

Just collecting a few thoughts:

• Since reccmp is rather intended as a tool than a library (i.e. there won't be many (if any) other Python projects that import reccmp), supporting older Python versions is probably not that important.
• I don't think CI compatibility is a major factor since you can always specify the version you want to use (unless I am mistaken here).
• Would the main benefit of Python 3.11 be the availability of string enums? I don't see much of a reason why we'd have to support 3.10 if you see a significant benefit there.
• I agree that we should specify a minimum of 3.10 due to the features we use.