Remove the dependency on jupyterlab

[jtpio]

It looks like the dependency on jupyterlab was first added in #74.

According to this PR and the git history, it seems it was likely more for convenience as installing jupyter-ai only with pip install jupyter-ai would then automatically install jupyterlab.

However it looks like jupyter-ai does not make use of any Python import from jupyterlab when searching the code base: https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Ajupyterlab%2Fjupyter-ai%20jupyterlab&type=code

Except for testing here:

jupyter-ai/packages/jupyter-ai/ui-tests/jupyter_server_test_config.py

Line 8 in fbc4895

from jupyterlab.galata import configure_jupyter_server

Also generally JupyterLab extensions don't specify the dependency on jupyterlab by default in the extension template, so it's easier to install and reuse extensions in different contexts and environments. And JupyterLab users are already expected to have JupyterLab installed in their environment.

Not having the dependency on jupyterlab will also make it easier to use jupyter-ai with custom lab-based application that are not JupyterLab (but based on jupyterlab_server).

[dlqqq]

@jtpio Can you explain in more detail why we follow the convention of having extensions not define a dependency on jupyterlab? Defining this dependency allows a package manager to automatically detect if this extension is not compatible with the user's current version of JupyterLab.

I believe we added this version constraint shortly after JupyterLab 3 was deprecated. That way, when running pip install jupyter_ai:

• a user on JupyterLab 3 would install Jupyter AI 1.x,
• and a user on JupyterLab 4 would install Jupyter AI 2.x.

I guess the trade off is that upgrading Jupyter AI via pip install -U jupyter_ai would update the JupyterLab version, possibly bumping the major version. Is this what we're trying to avoid?

[SylvainCorlay]

The main reason is that these extensions should work in other jupyterlab-based applications (which are remixes of jupyterlab extensions) without pulling JupyterLab.

[dlqqq]

Sounds good, thanks!

[dlqqq]

@meeseeksdev please backport to 2.x