upgrade: replace deprecated pkg_resources with importlib, resolves #966

[Abdul-Muqadim-Arbisoft]

Description:

This PR addresses the issue reported in Issue #966, where Tutor was facing compatibility problems with Python 3.12, particularly when using plugins. The root cause was identified as the continued use of the pkg_resources module, which is not available in Python 3.12 environments without explicit installation of setuptools.

Problem:

• pkg_resources module deprecated due to availability of better alternatives.
• Tutor claims support for Python 3.12 in setup.py classifiers.
• When using Python 3.12, specifically in environments without setuptools, the usage of pkg_resources causes a ModuleNotFoundError.

Solution:

• Replaced deprecated pkg_resources with modern importlib functionalities, aligning with Python's standard practices and enhancing compatibility.
• Ensured that this change addresses the issue without affecting the existing functionalities of Tutor.

Testing:

• Steps to reproduce the issue were followed as described in the original problem statement.
• Verified that after replacing pkg_resources with importlib, Tutor plugins enable and work correctly in a Python 3.12 virtual environment and in all environments made of python3.8 and above .
• Ran existing tests to ensure no other part of Tutor is adversely affected by this change.

[regisb]

Awesome! Could you please just add a changelog entry? https://docs.tutor.overhang.io/tutor.html#contributing

[Danyal-Faheem]

Awesome! Could you please just add a changelog entry? https://docs.tutor.overhang.io/tutor.html#contributing

Done. Thanks for reminding me once again. 😄

[regisb]

Looking good! Can you please rebase and squash your commits on top of master?

[regisb]

Awesome, thanks a lot! It looks like you still need to rebase your changes though.

[regisb]

I took the liberty to cherry-pick your commit and fix conflicts. This is now closed by d99b2fe
Thanks!

[regisb]

FTR, this line did cause an issue during the release. It was fixed by b69a8c7