Drop python 3.8 in the CI

.github/workflows/code-style.yml

@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - uses: actions/setup-python@v4
         with:
-          python-version: "3.8"
+          python-version: "3.11"
       - run: |
           bash ./tests/run_code_style.sh install
           bash ./tests/run_code_style.sh fmt

.github/workflows/hvd-tests.yml

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ jobs:
     timeout-minutes: 60
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: [3.8]
+        python-version: ["3.11"]
         pytorch-channel: [pytorch]
 
     steps:
@@ -64,7 +64,20 @@ jobs:
           #install other dependencies
           pip install torch torchvision --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu
           pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
-          pip install horovod
+
+          # Install Horovod from source and apply a patch to build with recent pytorch
+          # We can't use pip install <whatever> as build-env can't find pytorch and 
+          # `--no-build-isolation` does not work with horovod setup.py
+          git clone --recursive https://github.com/horovod/horovod.git /tmp/horovod
+          cd /tmp/horovod
+          sed -i "s/CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14/CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17/g" CMakeLists.txt
+          sed -i "s/CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14/CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17/g" horovod/torch/CMakeLists.txt          
+          HOROVOD_WITH_PYTORCH=1 python setup.py install                
+          cd -
+          # test the installation:
+          python -c "import horovod.torch as hvd; hvd.mpi_ops.Sum"
+
+          # Install ignite
           python setup.py install
 
       # Download MNIST: https://github.com/pytorch/ignite/issues/1737

.github/workflows/mps-tests.yml

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ jobs:
   mps-tests:
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: [3.8]
+        python-version: [3.11]
         pytorch-channel: ["pytorch"]
         skip-distrib-tests: [1]
       fail-fast: false

.github/workflows/pytorch-version-tests.yml

@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ jobs:
       max-parallel: 5
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
+        # Here we keep python 3.8 tests until the end of the 2024 and 
+        # will drop python version and related pytorch versions
         python-version: [3.8, 3.9, "3.10"]
         pytorch-version:
           [2.3.1, 2.2.2, 2.1.2, 2.0.1, 1.13.1, 1.12.1, 1.10.0, 1.8.1, 1.5.1]

.github/workflows/unit-tests.yml

@@ -40,18 +40,18 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         os: [ubuntu-latest]
-        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11", "3.12"]
+        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11", "3.12"]
         pytorch-channel: [pytorch, pytorch-nightly]
         include:
           # includes a single build on windows
           - os: windows-latest
             pytorch-channel: pytorch
-            python-version: 3.9
+            python-version: 3.11
             skip-distrib-tests: 1
           # includes a single build on macosx
           - os: macos-latest
             pytorch-channel: pytorch
-            python-version: 3.9
+            python-version: 3.11
             skip-distrib-tests: 1
 
     steps:

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ into the following categories:
 - Create an isolated conda environment for pytorch-ignite:
 
 ```bash
-conda create -n pytorch-ignite-dev python=3.8
+conda create -n pytorch-ignite-dev python=3.11
 ```
 
 - Activate the newly created environment:

ignite/handlers/neptune_logger.py

@@ -166,15 +166,7 @@ def __setitem__(self, key: str, val: Any) -> Any:
 
     def __init__(self, api_token: Optional[str] = None, project: Optional[str] = None, **kwargs: Any) -> None:
         try:
-            try:
-                # neptune-client<1.0.0 package structure
-                with warnings.catch_warnings():
-                    # ignore the deprecation warnings
-                    warnings.simplefilter("ignore")
-                    import neptune.new as neptune
-            except ImportError:
-                # neptune>=1.0.0 package structure
-                import neptune
+            import neptune
         except ImportError:
             raise ModuleNotFoundError(
                 "This contrib module requires the Neptune client library to be installed. "