CHORE: Remove flake8 - not enforced, only Black is required

- Remove flake8 from pyproject.toml lint dependencies
- Remove flake8 from requirements.txt
- Remove flake8 step from lint-check.yml workflow
- Remove .flake8 trigger from workflow paths
- Delete .flake8 config file

Flake8 was never enforced (continue-on-error: true), only Black is blocking.

Author: bewithgaurav

.flake8

@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ on:
       - '**.hpp'
       - '.github/workflows/lint-check.yml'
       - 'pyproject.toml'
-      - '.flake8'
       - '.clang-format'
   push:
     branches:
@@ -39,7 +38,7 @@ jobs:
     - name: Install dependencies
       run: |
         python -m pip install --upgrade pip
-        pip install black flake8 pylint autopep8
+        pip install black pylint autopep8
         if [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip install -r requirements.txt; fi
         
     - name: Check Python formatting with Black
@@ -51,15 +50,6 @@ jobs:
         }
         echo "::endgroup::"
         
-    - name: Lint with Flake8
-      run: |
-        echo "::group::Flake8 Linting"
-        flake8 mssql_python/ tests/ --max-line-length=100 --extend-ignore=E203,W503,E501,E722,F401,F841,W293,W291,F541,F811,E402,E711,E712,E721,F821 --count --statistics || {
-          echo "::warning::Flake8 found linting issues (informational only, not blocking)"
-        }
-        echo "::endgroup::"
-      continue-on-error: true
-        
     - name: Lint with Pylint
       run: |
         echo "::group::Pylint Analysis"
@@ -159,7 +149,7 @@ jobs:
           echo "❌ **Python Formatting (Black):** FAILED - Please run Black formatter" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
         fi
         
-        echo "ℹ️ **Python Linting (Flake8, Pylint):** Informational only" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
+        echo "ℹ️ **Python Linting (Pylint):** Informational only" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
         echo "ℹ️ **C++ Linting (clang-format, cpplint):** Informational only" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY
         
         echo "" >> $GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY

.github/workflows/lint-check.yml

@@ -62,7 +62,6 @@ dev = [
 lint = [
     "black",
     "autopep8",
-    "flake8",
     "pylint",
     "cpplint",
     "mypy",

pyproject.toml

@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ setuptools
 # Code formatting and linting
 black
 autopep8
-flake8
 pylint
 cpplint
 mypy