Support for Python > 3.8

[harshkhandeparkar]

The PDF library used to read timetables, camelot-py, only supports Python versions 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8. Support for Python 3.10+ would be mandatory in a year since 3.8 will stop receiving security updates in Oct 2024.

Possible solutions:

• Use an alternate PDF library
• Fork and update the current library

[anuraganand92]

I'm working with to use tabula-py as the alternate library to fix this and pandas to export as excel

[harshkhandeparkar]

@shikharish

[shikharish]

@anuraganand92
Go ahead!
And do share your progress. How is tabula working on the pdf?

[anuraganand92]

I discarded tabula as it wasn't that good or fast enough for parsing, I tried pdfplumber which was similar to camelot.
I attempted it on test.pdf, but i am not sure if the parsing format in test.xls is the correct one, because some cells have multiple entries or different arrangement of entries
test.xlsx

[shikharish]

Yes, I myself tried tabula, pdfplumber and a few others. None of them were as good as camelot.
If we can't find an alternative, forking and updating camelot seems like the only option.