Consider scientific-python/spec0-action

[VeckoTheGecko]

I discovered https://github.com/scientific-python/spec0-action through poking around the Scientific Python Discord. I think this is quite related to discussion @keewis during the xarray dev meeting.

This repository contains a GitHub Action to generate the files required for the SPEC-0 documentation.

Not sure how this fits in with this project, or deprecation policies in Xarray. Since SPEC0 docs mention xarray I thought I would mention it.

[VeckoTheGecko]

I just realised the repo is 5 years old, so perhaps this is nothing new...

[keewis]

I'm not sure, but I think that action is for generating the SPEC0 version table / visualization. And while xarray is included there, this does not tell you anything about xarray's own dependency policy, just that within the ecosystem, this is the recommended policy.

Additionally, xarray's policy is slightly different from SPEC0's: xarray allows dropping a dependency as soon as the next version is a least N months old, while SPEC0 allows dropping a dependency after M months. For frequently released projects there's not much of a difference, but for very infrequently released projects with SPEC0 you can end up being able to require a 1 month old dependency.

So yes, it is related but different. Or rather, in the dev meeting I mentioned looking into visualizing xarray's policy, which is what I think the SPEC0 action is doing (and which I took as inspiration)

[keewis]

actually, it looks like I misunderstood: the SPEC0 action analyzes the dependencies listed in the project metadata (pyproject.toml's project.dependencies and project.optional-dependencies keys).

I still think that we can't use the action since the policies rules are different, but extending this action to also analyzing pyproject.toml sounds like a good idea.