Context

flake8 takes a long time to run (i.e. pre-commit). It would be nicer to use ruff.

Proposal

1. Remove flake8 as a dependency, including the .flake8 file.
2. Add ruff rules to pyproject.toml file
3. Modify .pre-commit-config.yaml to use ruff

Tasks and updates

• Remove flake8 as a dependency, including the .flake8 file.
• Add ruff rules to pyproject.toml file
• Modify .pre-commit-config.yaml to use ruff