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How I Edit Text Files (VS Code Settings)🔗

Editing Text Files. It's the core of programming.

I admit there are a lot of GUI and block coding tools in the 21st century.

But unless you're going to retire from coding and go to woodworking, you'll probably need to at least open and view some code files or non code files.

Why use a Code Editor?🔗

For the same reason some teachers allow cheatsheets: So you can focus on the relevant task. It's not efficient to constantly think about the syntax of your program. It's especially not efficient to constantly run into fixable bugs and errors.

A few features in text editors that I now take for granted are:

  • templating
  • autocompletion & suggestion
  • syntax highlighting
  • syntax correction

In this post I'll focus on how I set up my VS Code to help decrease my cognitive load when coding in Python (And some bonus tips for blogging / READMEs with Markdown). I'll go over relevant extensions for the Python ecosystem, and try to discuss different settings options you may prefer better.

NOTE: I personally find VS Code more friendly for new users than older text editors like Emacs and Vim, but those are also incredibly powerful and customizable. It also has significant community extension support. In fact, this post was partially inspired and is partially fueled by "How I VSCode" a 100% open-source VS Code extension by Scott W that generates a simple public profile to share the extensions you use. Here's mine: howivscode.com/gerardrbentley.

First Steps🔗

Download🔗

A VS Code download for your system should be available here. If you need additional directions on downloading and installing, Microsoft already has an extensive guide on using VS Code that I'll reference a bit.

Open Code🔗

I recommend using your OS's search (probably cmd + spacebar, windows key, or super key) and typing code to search and if it pops up hit enter to open VS Code with just the keyboard.

If you don't want to use the keyboard, go to your Applications folder / Start menu / Launch menu to find VS Code

New Project Folder🔗

For this demo we'll only be making a few files, but VS Code works best when we have a project folder, so create one now.

Use ctrl+k then ctrl+o to Open a folder. Go ahead and create one named /vscodetests/ and put it on your Desktop (or use a different name and location, choose your own adventure!)

If you don't want to use the keyboard, the File -> Open Folder option from the top bar will do the same action.

New File🔗

You can use ctrl+n to create a New file, but I usually Right-Click on the name of the folder to put the file in and select New File; name it something like basic_python.py.

If you have only one folder you can Right-Click anywhere in the left "File Explorer" panel (ctrl+shift+e to get it back in focus if it's gone)

Check out the default keyboard shortcuts for mac, windows, linux keyboard shortcuts

First Extensions🔗

After opening a new file (or saving it with .py ending if you used ctrl+n to create one), you'll probably get a popup in the bottom right corner suggesting you install the Recommended Python Extensions. This is from Microsoft and the de-facto Python settings extension in VS Code, so go ahead and install it from there.

In general when you open a new filetype you will get a popup like this. The features vary by language / filetype, but there are many linters, formatters, and checkers that benefit from Language Server Protocol (LSP) these days.

If you ever want to uninstall the Python extension or install new extensions, use ctrl+shift+x to open the "EXtensions" panel on the left.

Some good candidates for Python project contributors: - Python Specific - Python Docstring Generator (Nils Werner) - Even Better TOML (tamasfe) - General VS Code - RETIRED, Built In Now Bracket Pair Colorizer 2 (CoenraadS): Visualize nested brackets and parentheses more easily - indent-rainbow (oderwat): Visualize deeply indented blocks more easily - GitLens (Eric Amodio): Quickly check git history of files, branches, lines, etc. - Various File Types - Markdown TOC (AlanWalk) - markdownlint (David Anson) - XML (Red Hat) - SQL Formatter (adpyke)

Bonus: For Emacs users, "Awesome Emacs Keymap" will get you most of the way to familiar text editing keybindings

VS Code Set Python Env and Formatter🔗

Recommended settings in VS Code

  • Type ctrl+shift+p then type "settings json" and select the entry, add these key-value pairs to file
    • Edit the CHANGEME:YOURNAME with your Windows user. (On Ubuntu based systems use /home/username/miniconda3/bin/python, similar for other Unix systems but with relevant user home directory)

note: you can instead use ctrl+shift+p and search "settings ui" (or use ctrl+,) and then search for each of the keynames below to explore what other settings you might like to try (or different choices for these options!).

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{
    "files.autoSave": "onFocusChange",
    "editor.wordWrap": "on",
    "editor.wordWrapColumn": 88,
    "jupyter.alwaysTrustNotebooks": true,
    "python.linting.flake8Enabled": true,
    "python.linting.flake8Args": [
        "--max-line-length=88"
    ],
    "python.analysis.typeCheckingMode": "basic",
    "workbench.editorAssociations": [
        {
            "viewType": "jupyter.notebook.ipynb",
            "filenamePattern": "*.ipynb"
        }
    ],
    "python.linting.pylintEnabled": false,
    "python.formatting.provider": "black",
    "python.linting.ignorePatterns": [
        ".vscode/*.py",
        "**/site-packages/**/*.py",
        "venv/*.py"
    ],
    "python.testing.pytestEnabled": true,
    "python.venvPath": "${workspaceFolder}"
}

Get on to Getting Things Done🔗

That's the bare-bones Python setup.

Some of the suggestions below rely on popular Python packages:

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# formatter
black
# linter + static checker
flake8
# interact with jupyter notebooks
ipykernel
# sort imports in a consistent fashion
isort
# let flake8 nag you about object naming
pep8-naming

You can install them to your current Python environment with pip install black for example.

Python Things to Try🔗

Feel free to try out / research the following (Python related):

  • Typing error-filled python code and see how flake8 warns you
  • Start your .py document with # %% to make it a VS Code "Python Interactive" document (really awesome way to experiment with code blocks and debug small chunks)
  • Use alt+shift+f or ctrl+shift+p and search 'Format Document' to format python according to black standard
  • Text Editing and Searching Guide including stuff like using multiple cursors, search and replace over multiple files, auto save (which is included in my json settings above)
  • Make a new virtual environment for your project with python -m venv venv or look into using conda to manage your environments
  • Look into VS Code's live code sharing and git integrations to collaborate better

Other Languages🔗

Or expand your environment by setting up a few more tools (tangential to Python):

  • Look into Emmet the auto completer for html files built into VS Code
  • Install Node if you're going to be doing some web development or otherwise need npm
  • Install Docker if you want to explore modern container based deployment
  • Find some good Python Reading (Ok one more Python recommendation; some of these are available for low-to-no cost from the authors)

PyCharm is tooled specifically for Python and is very popular in the community.

JupyterLab and plain Jupyter Notebooks are common development tools for Python users as well.

Atom and Sublime are also still rather popular among coders.

Emacs and Vim are also still great (well, Emacs lacks a decent editor...)

Last update: June 7, 2023
Created: June 7, 2023