maint: Drop Python 3.8

.github/workflows/unittests.yml

@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: true
       matrix:
         include:
-          - os: ubuntu-latest
-            python-version: "3.8"
           - os: ubuntu-latest
             python-version: "3.9"
           - os: ubuntu-latest

README.rst

@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ Requirements
 
 To use all of the functionality of the library, you should have:
 
-* **Python** 3.8+ (required)
+* **Python** 3.9+ (required)
 * **PyAudio** 0.2.11+ (required only if you need to use microphone input, ``Microphone``)
 * **PocketSphinx** (required only if you need to use the Sphinx recognizer, ``recognizer_instance.recognize_sphinx``)
 * **Google API Client Library for Python** (required only if you need to use the Google Cloud Speech API, ``recognizer_instance.recognize_google_cloud``)
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ The following sections go over the details of each requirement.
 Python
 ~~~~~~
 
-The first software requirement is `Python 3.8+ <https://www.python.org/downloads/>`__. This is required to use the library.
+The first software requirement is `Python 3.9+ <https://www.python.org/downloads/>`__. This is required to use the library.
 
 PyAudio (for microphone users)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

setup.py

@@ -62,14 +62,13 @@ def run(self):
         "Operating System :: Other OS",
         "Programming Language :: Python",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
-        "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",
         "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
         "Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules",
         "Topic :: Multimedia :: Sound/Audio :: Speech",
     ],
-    python_requires=">=3.8",
+    python_requires=">=3.9",
     install_requires=['requests>=2.26.0', "typing-extensions"],
 )