improve encoding handling for `setup.cfg`

tests: temporary pin pip to fix the Python 2.7 job

Given that the config file parsing functionality is unlikely to change upstream, just incorporate the functionality directly.

Pin pytest to <4 for now. Ref #1638.

In build_meta (PEP 517), always built gztar

Refactor build_meta

Always specify formats=gztar, overriding the project's legacy expectation that a zip sdist should be generated. Fixes #1623.

Tweak "making a pull request" documentation

reStructuredText is how the name is commonly stylized (see Wikipedia),
also fixed a typo in the "deprecation" description.

Spelling fixes

Disallow files for license inputs

Both the old and new approaches are deeply unsatisfying to me, but
without reworking how these test commands are run, I think this is
about as close as we can get to enforcing that this specific call
raises ValueError.