Split Android testbed into a separate package

[mhsmith]

Feature or enhancement

Proposal:

I'm thinking of splitting out the Android testbed from the cpython repository into a separate package so it's easier to update. Waiting for Python's 2-month release cycle has often been an inconvenience for making testbed changes available to cibuildwheel. And Python 3.13 is about to go into security-only status, which will make this even more difficult.

We can structure this as 3 layers:

• The top-level Platforms/Android launcher can remain in the cpython repository.
• The testbed moves to an external package on PyPI, where it can be shared by cpython and cibuildwheel. With the testbed source code installed in a virtual environment, writing to its directory as part of a build would be a bad idea, so we should also introduce a "clone" command like the iOS testbed has.
• This package would also include a lower-level script for building, running and log-streaming any Android app. This can be shared by the Chaquopy test apps, and maybe in future by Briefcase and other Android development tools.

To avoid breaking compatibility, the testbed would continue to be bundled in Android Python 3.13 - 3.15 releases on python.org, but cibuildwheel wouldn't use it anymore, instead installing it from PyPI. From Python 3.16 onwards, the testbed would no longer be included in the python.org release.

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

This is a minor feature, which does not need previous discussion elsewhere

Linked PRs

• gh-158018: Factor out non-app-specific parts of the Android testbed #158019

[freakboy3742]

I understand the reasoning behind this, but I think it might need some broader discussions on DPO - I can't think of any other example where the CPython build requires access to pip, so the management of that process will require some planning. If nothing else, the ownership/provenance of the new Android testbed package will need to be agreed on.