docs: Python 3.11 is highest compatible version for yarn install

[MikeMcC399]

• Closes Python 3.12 build error "No module named 'distutils'" #28695

Additional details

When rebuilding Cypress from source, at the stage where dependencies are installed, the following two npm modules require rebuilding, and this in turn requires that Python be installed.:

• registry-js
• cpu-features

If the current version of Python 3.12.1 is installed then the rebuild fails with the following error message:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

This PR changes CONTRIBUTING > Requirements to document that Python 3.11 or lower be used, so that the problem does not occur.

On local Windows systems, for instance, there is no pre-installed or default version of Python installed, so the version to be installed must be chosen. node-gyp recommends for Windows:

Install the current version of Python from the Microsoft Store.

On macOS GitHub runners macos-11, macos-12 and macos-13 these have Python 3.12.x installed by default.

Steps to test

Install / set up the Node.js version specified by .node-version - currently 18.15.0

• on Ubuntu 22.04 use the default Python version, for example 3.10.11
• on Windows 11
  • install Python 3.11 from the Microsoft Store. Check the version with python3 --version.
  • install Visual Studio Community version 2022 (17.18.4), using the workload "Desktop development with C++" with its default selections. Select (or use Visual Studio Installer > Modify) to add Optional component Windows 10 SDK (for example 10.0.20348.0).

then execute the following:

git clone https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress
cd cypress
npm install yarn -g
yarn

Examine the logs and ensure that there are no errors recorded between the steps

[5/6] Building fresh packages...
[6/6] Cleaning modules...

How has the user experience changed?

This documentation change avoids the build error

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

and concerns developers only.

PR Tasks

• [na] Have tests been added/updated?
• [na] Has a PR for user-facing changes been opened in cypress-documentation?
• [na] Have API changes been updated in the type definitions?

[cypress-app-bot]

• Create a Draft Pull Request if your PR is not ready for review. Mark the PR as Ready for Review when you're ready for a Cypress team member to review the PR.

[MikeMcC399]

Supporting Python 3.12 requires a minimum of node-gyp@10.0.0 which takes care of the removal of distutils in Python 3.12. There are multiple npm modules which would need to be updated in Cypress before node-gyp@10.x could be used, so I expect that the restriction to use no higher than Python 3.11 will be in place for some significant time period.

• See related Update to minimum node-gyp 9.1 for build on Windows #28766 to get to minimum node-gyp@9.1.x.