Switch to using the standards format (requirements.txt) for Python deps.

[sseering]

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[flokoe]

Hi there!

Thanks for your contribution.

The requirements.txt is more a common way to express dependencies for pip (and pip only) than a real standard.

I am missing the "why" for this PR. What value does this change provide in contrast to the old variant? Currently, this PR just moves the location where dependencies are stored.

Maybe freeze the versions of the dependencies in the requirements.txt? This would add the value of locking the dependencies for everyone.

With locked dependencies, I would happily accept this PR.

[sseering]

The requirements.txt is more a common way to express dependencies for pip (and pip only) than a real standard.

I am missing the "why" for this PR. What value does this change provide in contrast to the old variant? Currently, this PR just moves the location where dependencies are stored.

Having the dependecies in a machine readable format is useful in the long term. That was the whole goal.

There might not be a a full agreement from all Pyhon tools to use the file. But its widely used enough and well specified enough for me: https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/reference/requirements-file-format/

Maybe freeze the versions of the dependencies in the requirements.txt? This would add the value of locking the dependencies for everyone.

With locked dependencies, I would happily accept this PR.

I'm not familiar enough with the code to determine the min/max versions for dependencies.

Arguably, its not even a good idea to pin the versions of dependencies.

The current way of pip install mkdocs-material mkdocs-git-revision-date-localized-plugin mkdocs-awesome-pages-plugin mkdocs-minify-plugin mkdocs serve will always install the current stable versions of all dependencies. The requirements.txt suggestted by me keeps this behaviour.

From the Readme.md showing pip install mkdocs-material mkdocs-git-revision-date-localized-plugin mkdocs-awesome-pages-plugin mkdocs-minify-plugin mkdocs serve one can assume that this project is expected to always run with the current stable versions of all dependencies. This is a good goal and should not be changed. Pinning to versions that will eventually become outdated would be a downgrade.

[flokoe]

Arguably, its not even a good idea to pin the versions of dependencies.

I disagree.

The current way of pip install mkdocs-material mkdocs-git-revision-date-localized-plugin mkdocs-awesome-pages-plugin mkdocs-minify-plugin, mkdocs serve will always install the current stable versions of all dependencies. The requirements.txt suggestted by me keeps this behaviour.

This may be true and I agree that we should always use the latest stable software, but without pinning we are not able to guarantee this and people are notoriously bad at keeping their software up to date.

Pinning to versions that will eventually become outdated would be a downgrade.

This is pretty much a non-concern, as it is trivial to automate. I'll be happy to add Renovate Bot to this Repo. See #23

Now, that said, pinning versions for this project isn't that critical as we only consume software instead of creating it. But I still would like to add version pinning as it is good practice.

I'm not familiar enough with the code to determine the min/max versions for dependencies.

Currently, we could just use the latest versions as a starting point. As far as I know we do not use any special features. A fresh install and pip freeze would do the trick.

[flokoe]

I guess it does not hurt and it is an incremental step towards dependency pinning. I will accept your PR.

Thanks for your contribution!