Python 3.12 support inconsistency and environment setup warnings

[SheltonXiao]

Hi, thanks for your great work on this project!

While configuring the environment, I found an inconsistency between the README and the actual Python support as defined in the project metadata. Below is a summary of the issue and suggested improvements.

1. Python version support inconsistency
   The README states: Python >= 3.8
   So I initially set up the environment using Python 3.12.
   However, the project’s pyproject.toml lists supported versions that exclude Python 3.12.
   This leads to unexpected behavior when running examples under 3.12.

2. Warning when running examples (02–05)
   Using Python 3.12, running the example scripts prints:
   WARNING [__init__.py:22] sqlalchemy not installed. SQL-backed graph support will not be available. Try 'pip install brickschema[persistence]' to install it.
   Installing the extra: pip install brickschema[persistence] does resolve the warning.
   However, when using Python 3.11, the same examples do not show this warning, indicating that the 3.12 environment triggers different dependency resolution or optional dependency workflows.

3. Suggestion
   To avoid confusion for new users, I recommend:

• ✅ Option A — Temporarily restrict supported Python versions
  Update pyproject.toml and README to explicitly list the versions officially supported (e.g., 3.8–3.11), until Python 3.12 compatibility is fully ensured.
• ✅ Option B — Update project metadata
  If Python 3.12 is intended to be supported, update as follows to ensure consistent behavior across versions.
  • pyproject.toml → requires-python
  • requirements.txt or extras

4. Environment details
   Python versions tested: 3.11 and 3.12
   Issue observed only under 3.12
   Warning disappears after installing brickschema[persistence]

Let me know if more logs or environment details would help.

Thanks again for maintaining this project!

[LiMingchen159]

Hi, @SheltonXiao. Thanks for the reminder! You’re right, my current test suite doesn’t yet cover Python 3.12.

Regarding the brickschema[persistence] warning, it’s actually not specific to Python 3.12 — it can also appear on other versions upon first installation. This warning comes from the official Brick package and doesn’t affect the functionality of this tool.

I’ll add Python 3.12 to the test suite in the next release and see if we can safely suppress or ignore that warning.

Thanks again for catching this and for the helpful feedback!