Update CONTRIBUTING docs and PR template

The example for creating a virtual environment is updated to use venv, which is bundled with modern python.
Removed using flake8 in the PR template because we no longer use flake8 and because ruff is run as part of CI.

Author: brews

.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md

@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
  - [ ] closes #xxxx
  - [ ] tests added / passed
  - [ ] docs reflect changes
- - [ ] passes ``flake8 impactlab_tools tests docs``
  - [ ] whatsnew entry

.gitignore

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ __pycache__/
 
 # Distribution / packaging
 .Python
-env/
 build/
 develop-eggs/
 dist/
@@ -25,6 +24,16 @@ var/
 *.egg
 *_deploy_key*
 
+# Environments
+.env
+.venv
+env/
+venv/
+ENV/
+env.bak/
+venv.bak/
+
+
 # PyInstaller
 #  Usually these files are written by a python script from a template
 #  before PyInstaller builds the exe, so as to inject date/other infos into it.

CONTRIBUTING.rst

@@ -69,12 +69,14 @@ code.
 Setting up your development environment
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Install your local copy into a virtualenv. Assuming you have virtualenvwrapper
-installed, this is how you set up your fork for local development::
+Install your local copy into a virtual environment. For example, using venv,
+this is how you set up your fork for local development::
 
-    $ mkvirtualenv impactlab-tools
     $ cd impactlab-tools/
-    $ python setup.py develop
+    $ python3 -m venv .venv
+    $ source .venv/bin/activate
+    $ python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
+    $ python3 -m pip install -e .
 
 Developing your feature
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -115,13 +117,13 @@ When making any changes to the impactlab-tools codebase, follow the following st
     tests you just wrote. Run tests frequently to make sure you are maintaining
     compatibility with the rest of the package::
 
-        $ python setup.py test
-        $ flake8 impactlab-tools tests docs
+        $ python3 -m pytest
+        $ python3 -m ruff check .
 
     You can run only the tests you wrote using pytest's expression matching
     syntax, e.g.::
 
-        $ pytest -k test_my_new_feature
+        $ python3 -m pytest -k test_my_new_feature
 
 7.  When you are passing all of your tests, run the full test suite.
 

whatsnew.rst

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ Unreleased
 ----------
 
  - Minor code style update.
+ - Update CONTRIBUTING docs to use ``venv`` in the example for creating virtual environments. This tool is bundled with Python by default.
 
 v0.6.0 (May 31, 2024)
 ---------------------