RFE: Replace use of `pkg_resources` with `importlib.metadata`

[kloczek]

See discussions:
astropy/astropy#11091
pypa/pip#7413

[tkloczko@devel-g2v waitress-2.1.2]$ grep -r pkg_resources
docs/conf.py:import pkg_resources
docs/conf.py:version = pkg_resources.get_distribution("waitress").version

[mmerickel]

This is a build time dependency. Yes it should be replaced but it is not affecting anyone except the maintainers of the library.

[kloczek]

And packages .. this particular use of that module is messing in sys.path which disturbs building documentation.

[digitalresistor]

How does it disturb building documentation?

[mmerickel]

If you look at the linked setuptools issue it’s just a vendetta against pkg_resouces manipulating the sys.path but I can’t see why it matters for anyone building docs.