Replace codecs.open() with open() since codecs.open() deprecated in 3.14

[tleonhardt]

Replace codecs.open() with open() since the former is deprecated in Python 3.14

codecs.open was necessary in Python 2 because the built-in open() function could not handle different text encodings like UTF-8. It provided a way to read and write text files containing Unicode characters, which the default open() could not do without causing errors. With Python 3, the built-in open() function was changed to take an encoding argument and to handle text files as Unicode by default

Also:

• Added uv.lock to .gitignore to make it easier to test with uv virtual environments using things like a release candidate version of Python

Closes #8446

[squidfunk]

Thanks for the PR. The code was adapted from @facelessuser's extension. Maybe he can shortly comment on why codecs was necessary in the first place? Does this still work in Python 3.8?

[tleonhardt]

@squidfunk I updated the description with this text explaining that Python 2 required using codecs.open for unicode files, but in Python 3 this is supported out-of-the-box with the built-in open function:

codecs.open was necessary in Python 2 because the built-in open() function could not handle different text encodings like UTF-8. It provided a way to read and write text files containing Unicode characters, which the default open() could not do without causing errors. With Python 3, the built-in open() function was changed to take an encoding argument and to handle text files as Unicode by default

And yes this still works with I believe all versions of Python 3, certainly including 3.8.

[tleonhardt]

For cmd2 that I help maintain, we had to make an identical change a couple months ago when we began testing on Python 3.14: python-cmd2/cmd2#1470

[squidfunk]

Thanks, that makes sense! Python 2, wow, that feels distant. I think this should be good to merge then.

[tleonhardt]

@squidfunk Thank you for creating and maintaining such a wonderful documentation system! I've been using it for a bit under a year now after moving to it from Sphinx and I really love it.

[facelessuser]

I don't know exactly what MkDocs Material relies on, but I will note that codecs.open() is not exactly equivalent when using open(). open(..., errors='strict') would be equivalent. It may be that Material does not require this the "strict" parameter, but something to note that I discovered in another project where I did require strict error handling in relation to encoding, etc. Just an FYI, especially if you notice different behavior.

[squidfunk]

@facelessuser perfect, thanks for noting! If we discover problems along the way, we can add the strict parameter.