Migrate mgwr metadata to pyproject.toml #155

[yousefkhedr777]

Summary

This PR completes the migration of mgwr metadata to pyproject.toml, addressing the requirements in issue #155 and the organization-wide modernization plan (pysal/pysal#1277).

Key Features & Issue Alignment:

• Distutils Deprecation: Fully replaced the legacy setup.py and setup.cfg to ensure compatibility with Python 3.12+ as requested.
• [cite_start]Metadata Integrity: Ported all project information, including authors (Ziqi Li and A. Stewart Fotheringham) and the BSD-3-Clause license.
• Branch Naming (xref swap master to main branch #129): Updated project URLs to point to the main branch instead of master to align with the repository's new structure.
• [cite_start]Modern Infrastructure: Configured setuptools as the build backend with setuptools_scm for dynamic versioning.

Verification:

I have successfully tested the build locally using:
pip install -e .
The environment correctly identified all dependencies (libpysal, spglm, numpy, etc.) and installed the package in editable mode.

I am highly motivated to contribute to PySAL for GSoC 2026 and I'm ready to apply this modernization to other packages in the ecosystem if needed.

CC: @jGaboardi

[yousefkhedr777]

"Hi @jGaboardi and @martinfleis,
I noticed the CI failure in the run tests step. The logs show that the environment was set up correctly and all dependencies were successfully installed using the new pyproject.toml.
It seems the current test suite might be looking for the legacy setup.py or setup.cfg paths which were removed as part of this migration. I'm ready to make any necessary adjustments to the test configurations to align with the new build structure if you have any guidance.

[sjsrey]

Hi @yousefkhedr777, and thanks for this PR.

Because we are now receiving many GSOC related PRs and Issues, we have updated our GSOC Contribution Policy and would ask all participants to please review it. As mgwr is not specified as a project for GSOC this year, we will leave this open for the maintainers to consider when they have time, but it won't be a priority for GSOC consideration.

[yousefkhedr777]

"Thank you @sjsrey for the clarification and for the warm welcome. I understand that mgwr is not a priority for GSoC this year. I will carefully review the updated GSOC Contribution Policy and look for other packages within the PySAL ecosystem where I can contribute. I’m happy to leave this PR open for whenever the maintainers have time to review it. "

[jGaboardi]

superseded by #168