Remove distutils usage, as is not available anymore on Python 3.12

[misl6]

Recently, our CI pipeline began failing due to the default Python version provided by actions/setup-python being set to 3.12. This issue stems from the removal of distutils in Python 3.12.

Changes:

To address the Python 3.12 compatibility issue, this pull request introduces the following changes:

• Replaced distutils.spawn.find_executable with shutil.which for locating executables.
• Replaced the use of distutils.version.LooseVersion with packaging.version.version for version comparisons.
• Introduced two new methods, build_tools_version_sort_key and max_build_tool_version, in the pythonforandroid.utils module. These additions not only resolve DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) violations but also enhance testability.
• Updates the testapps to use setuptools instead of distutils.
• Adds a setuptools dependency

These changes ensure that our codebase remains compatible with Python 3.12 and eliminates any reliance on deprecated distutils functionality.

[misl6]

@Julian-O , I've seen I touched some of your code, so added you as a reviewer 😉

[Julian-O]

All looks good to me.

There were some failing MacOs tests - I cant read the full logs from this tablet, but I assume they are unrelated.

[AndreMiras]

Nice thanks

[AndreMiras]

Out of scope, but I'm wondering, is 3.6 still the minor recommended version?

[Julian-O]

I'd encourage upgrading to Python 3.8 as a minimum, but I see that as a project decision.

• Python 3.6 and Python 3.7 are end of life. Python 3.8 has just under a year left of security support.

• The latest released version of Buildozer claims to support back to 3.6. The in-dev version is 3.8 minimum.

• The latest released version of Kivy claims to support back to 3.7. The in-dev version is 3.7 minimum.

• p4a's setup.py advertises 3.7, not 3.6.

My attitude is if you don't test it, you aren't really supporting it, so whatever the decision, please ensure the CI tests cover what setup.py advertises.

[misl6]

About this specific issue (the one suggested by @AndreMiras ):
I will (immediately, so we do not miss it), open a new issue, and target with a separate proper PR.

Generally, about the minimum Python version:

• kivy/kivy: We still need to include 3.7 even if reached EOL, at least for 2.3.0 as piwheels still requires 3.7 wheels (due to debian buster). Then, I will check out with piwheels maintainer, if there's a chance to avoid distributing wheels for debian buster.
• Same applies for kivy/pyobjus, kivy/pyjnius and kivy/plyer, as are quite tied with kivy/kivy.
• For kivy/python-for-android, kivy/kivy-ios and kivy/buildozer: what are we waiting to set the minimum version to 3.8 ? 😅

[AndreMiras]

Great insight, thanks @misl6
And yeah of course it makes sense to address that in dedicated PR, it caught my attention in this PR, but it's totally out of this scope