VSC configuration & Python standards

Nebbo believes in writing readable, safe and PEP-compliant Python code. This repository guides the user how to set up both VSC and a development environment (a sample DevContainer) to achieve the former. While the Python version used in this guide is 3.11, this should be extended to any other Python version you may use (adjusting the libraries' versions accordingly)

Recommendation

Cursor is built on top of VSC and provides a better development experience because of its greatly improved AI completions and interactions (compared to Copilot). Once VSC code has been set up (and synced with your GitHub user), cursor is definitely worth trying since it will be able to automatically import all your extensions and settings from VSC. It can be quickly installed with the executable in Windows or MAC, or in Ubuntu by downloading the cursor-*.appImage binary and:

sudo apt install libfuse2t64  # for Ubuntu 24.04, in 22.04 is: libfuse2
chmod +x ./cursor-<version>.AppImage
mv cursor-<version>.AppImage /opt/cursor.appimage

Then do sudo vim /usr/share/applications/app.desktop & add:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Cursor
Exec=/opt/cursor.appimage --no-sandbox &
Icon=<PATH-OF-CURSOR-ICON>
Type=Application
Categories=Development;

Where <PATH-OF-CURSOR-ICON> is the path of the app's .jpg icon you have to download from Internet.

Important note

It is important to remind NOT to install fuse or it may break your system if you have gnome installed.

Guide

The main tools & extensions to use can be distinguised amongst:

• Formatting: Ruff
• Linting: Pylance (& Ruff)
• Type hinting: mypy (& Pylance)

Let's set them up:

• Configure your Python environment throught the pyproject.toml

  • At you will see, not only the mypy & ruff servers are installed, but also some libraries' stubs (necessary for mypy) such as: pandas-stubs, types-tqdm, scipy-stubs
  • Note that ruff can be applied to the entire package from CLI by runnning:

  ruff check --fix src/testapp/

  Some more "unsafe" fix can be automatically performed with: ruff check --fix --unsafe-fixes src/testapp/

• Create a .mypy.ini to adjust some mypy settings:

  • Some libraries' stubs are not available or incomplete and mypy will complain. This can be avoided with:

  [mypy-xskillscore.*]
  ignore_missing_imports = True

  • Also it is advisable to enable untyped defs.' checks with:

  [mypy]
  check_untyped_defs = True

  • Note you can locally disable the type checker for in a specific line commenting # type: ignore

• Install the corresponding VSC extensions in the .devcontainer/devcontainer.json file

  • In general, you will want to have the same extensions as locally. You can run:

  code --list-extensions | sed -e 's/^/    "/' -e 's/$/",/' | sed '$ s/,$//' > extensions.txt

  to create an extesions' list.

• Finally, adjust your global VSC user's settings .json. In my case, I recommend:

  {
      // # Aesthetic & personal preferences
      "workbench.colorTheme": "Dracula Theme",
      "workbench.tree.indent": 20,
      "window.zoomLevel": 1,
      "editor.fontSize": 14,
      // "editor.rulers": [78, 120],
      "editor.minimap.renderCharacters": false,
      "editor.minimap.size": "fill",
      "editor.cursorStyle": "block-outline",
      "editor.cursorBlinking": "smooth",
  
      // # Auto-save feature
      "files.autoSave": "afterDelay", 
      "files.autoSaveDelay": 1000,  // after 1 second
  
      // # Python settings
      "[python]": {
          "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
              "source.organizeImports": "always",
              "source.fixAll": "always",
          },
          "editor.defaultFormatter": "charliermarsh.ruff",
          "editor.formatOnSave": true,  
      },
      "python.analysis.typeCheckingMode": "basic",
      "python.languageServer": "Pylance",
  
      // # Other settings
      "git.confirmSync": false,
      "redhat.telemetry.enabled": false,
      "explorer.confirmDragAndDrop": false,
  }

  Even though those before the # Auto-save feature comment are purely personal preferences.

Usage example

Ruff formatter

PyLance linter

mypy type checker