Python 3.12+: Drop support for legacy "openeo_udf" package? #558

A couple of openeo-python-driver unit tests fail on Python 3.12 with something along the lines of

openeo_driver.errors.OpenEOApiException: Unexpected error during 'run_udf' (node id 'udf'): ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'pkg_resources'"). The ...

root cause is that these test use the deprecated/unmaintained openeo_udf package, which is packaging-wise not compatible with Python 3.12 and up. It has runtime dependency on the pkg_resources package, but does not properly declare that dependency. On Python 3.11 this problem is masked because the package is accidentally available in common setups, but since Python 3.12 pkg_resources that assumption does not hold anymore.

Note that there is nothing in the openeo-python-driver (runtime) implementation that directly interacts with openeo_udf in any way. It is only used in a couple of tests (involving running a UDF on vector data).

Possible solutions:

• stop caring about the long deprecated openeo_udf package in the context of the openeo-python-driver project and remove the failing tests. Note that a openeo-geopyspark deployment can still chose to support openeo_udf by installing it properly.
• add pkg_resources as test dependency in some way. Not ideal as pkg_resources is a dead end and largely abandoned by the community