[CRITICAL] Please don't import deprecated sphinx.util.compat anymore

[userzimmermann]

sphinx.util.compat is deprecated and although latest sphinx-1.6.2 doesn't import it anymore internally, it causes issues with rc releases of docutils when sphinx.util.compat is imported by extensions, like:

Running Sphinx v1.6.2
making output directory...
Exception occurred:
  File "/home/travis/virtualenv/python3.4.2/lib/python3.4/site-packages/sphinx/util/compat.py", line 21, in <genexpr>
    docutils_version = tuple(int(x) for x in _du_version.split('.')[:2])
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '14rc1'

Error log:

# Sphinx version: 1.6.2
# Python version: 3.5.3 (CPython)
# Docutils version: 0.14rc1 prerelease
# Jinja2 version: 2.9.6
# Last messages:

# Loaded extensions:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\users\zimmermann\miniconda3\envs\coala\lib\site-packages\sphinx\cmdline.py", line 305, in main
    opts.warningiserror, opts.tags, opts.verbosity, opts.jobs)
  File "c:\users\zimmermann\miniconda3\envs\coala\lib\site-packages\sphinx\application.py", line 196, in __init__
    self.setup_extension(extension)
  File "c:\users\zimmermann\miniconda3\envs\coala\lib\site-packages\sphinx\application.py", line 456, in setup_extension
    self.registry.load_extension(self, extname)
  File "c:\users\zimmermann\miniconda3\envs\coala\lib\site-packages\sphinx\registry.py", line 196, in load_extension
    mod = __import__(extname, None, None, ['setup'])
  File "c:\users\zimmermann\miniconda3\envs\coala\lib\site-packages\sphinxarg\ext.py", line 10, in <module>
    from sphinx.util.compat import Directive
  File "c:\users\zimmermann\miniconda3\envs\coala\lib\site-packages\sphinx\util\compat.py", line 21, in <module>
    docutils_version = tuple(int(x) for x in _du_version.split('.')[:2])
  File "c:\users\zimmermann\miniconda3\envs\coala\lib\site-packages\sphinx\util\compat.py", line 21, in <genexpr>
    docutils_version = tuple(int(x) for x in _du_version.split('.')[:2])
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '14rc1'

Then you have to add workarounds to conf.py like in coala/coala#4334

You can also read more about the deprecation here:

sphinx-doc/sphinx#3846 (comment)

cc @jfbu @tk0miya @jayvdb