merge: syncing master with develop for stable release 2.5.0

bump: peparing for stable release 2.5.0

bump: preparations for new version

fix: error in the release workflow

fix: preparation for new release

fix: update all projects to toml.

fix: bumbing version to 3.11 so bdd works as expected.

fix: solving mypy, ruff and complexity errors

build: migrate to modern Python build tooling

fix: correct typo in CI workflow

refactor: standardize linting and type checking config

docs: adding a contributing.md file

docs:updating lgpl3 text

docs: updating the lgpl3 text

docs: Add GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1