xlwt is archived: consider dropping xlwt requirement?

[sanjayankur31]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
The xlwt has been archived, and will no longer receive updates.
https://github.com/python-excel/xlwt

See also:
https://groups.google.com/g/python-excel/c/P6TjJgFVjMI/m/g8d0eWxTBQAJ

Upstream suggests that one should not use these utils, and instead use openpyxl.

Describe the solution you'd like
Drop xlwt based functionality, or migrate to another still maintained library.

Describe alternatives you've considered
At the moment none, we're using the latest 1.3.0 version that is needed by NiaPy, but if there are bugs there it'll be hard to fix them now with an archived xlwt.

Additional context
NA

[firefly-cpp]

Thank you @sanjayankur31

This issue has already been resolved. However, xlwt will stay on dep list in order to ensure backward compatibility.

[carlosal1015]

Hi @firefly-cpp, openpyxl still is a hard dependency or now is an optional dependency for NiaPy?

[GregaVrbancic]

Hi @carlosal1015, currently openpyxl is still a hard dependency. Maybe we can work something out in the future releases. If you have any propositions on how to elegantly solve this, you are more than welcome to create a PR.

[firefly-cpp]

Currently, this is still a hard dependency. However, we may solve it without using external libraries. @zStupan, do you think there are other ways to eliminate this dependency? It is practically used only for dumping the results into an Excel file.

[zStupan]

@firefly-cpp We could make it an extra, so it would only be installed if the user requests it, like pip install niapy[excel] or something.

[firefly-cpp]

Good idea.