Remove support for Python 3.8

[ksbeattie]

Fixes/Addresses:

PyQt5-sip was just updated to 12.16.0 which removed support for Python 3.8. This is now breaking the CI for PR #1252 in an entirely unrelated way.

Summary/Motivation:

Since Python 3.8 is now EOL, we should remove support for it as well.

Changes proposed in this PR:

• Remove python 3.8 from our CI and documentation

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[ksbeattie]

Things I noticed while doing this:

• We need to update our docs on the use of Miniforge for conda
• We should look into updating the versions of the following that we use (in requirements-dev.txt):
  • black: from 24.3.0 to 24.10.0
  • pylint: from 3.1.0 to 3.3.2
  • astroid: from 3.1.0 to 3.3.6
  • pytest: not <8.1
• Look at thhe versions of Linux, Windows and GH actions used in our CI (.github/workflows/checks.yml)
• The Matlab docs show support for now very old versions of Python

[codecov]

Codecov Report

All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests ✅

Project coverage is 38.47%. Comparing base (62534b8) to head (c70ee09).
Report is 1 commits behind head on master.

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##           master    #1253   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   38.47%   38.47%           
=======================================
  Files         164      164           
  Lines       37020    37020           
  Branches     5728     5728           
=======================================
  Hits        14243    14243           
  Misses      21650    21650           
  Partials     1127     1127           

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[ksbeattie]

After e11d490 which just fixed the version of PyQt5-sip to 12.15.0 for python 3.8, all tests passed.

[lbianchi-lbl]

It might make sense to set these to 3.12, so that the oldest and newest Python version are both tested

[lbianchi-lbl]

It might make sense to remove the python_version>3.8, since that's now always going to be true.

Suggested change

	pylint==3.1.0;python_version>"3.8"
	astroid==3.1.0;python_version>"3.8"
	pylint==3.1.0
	astroid==3.1.0

[lbianchi-lbl]

From a quick look (i.e. only looking at the changes in this PR, and not through the entire codebase), things look fine apart from a couple minor suggestions.

[ksbeattie]

@boverhof & @bpaul4 can I get a quick review of this? I can then get #1252 working again.

[bpaul4]

Why was this added here?

[ksbeattie]

Because I accidentally added them in fa2d5b0 ! I figured I (or others) might make the same mistake again so I added them to be ignored.

[bpaul4]

Looks good!