VS Code extensions and tricks

This page collects usefull VS code extensions and configurations to get productive quickly after installing VS code on another machine.

Important notes

Editor features

VS Code is based on Monaco editor. Its features like multiple cursors, selection, hilighting, keyboard shortcuts are described here code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/codebasics.

Installation location

Where VS Code is installed: see code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/uninstall (+ C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Local on windows user installation, resp. unpacked ZIP folder in zip installation)

VS Code with WSL

When using VS Code with WSL store your project files/repo in WSL, not in mounted windows folder for better performance (link) If the repo is in mounted windows folder (like /mnt/c/…) there are some issues with Git:
- git is slower
- issues with symlinks and opening files from source control pane (although this is possibly not related to windows-mounting)
There are currently 2 ways of installing WSL2 from microsfot store
- standalone e.g. Ubuntu installation.
- by instaling “WSL store version” (aka WSL 1.0, but not to be confused with WSL1, this is also WSL2), first and the distribution (e.g. like above) afterwards. This option is also invoked via powershell commands wsl --install and wsl --update.
The “store version” is newer, preffered, supported and allows runing graphical Linux apps (and allegedly integrates GPU), but provides WSL smaller portion of accessible memory, while also being more much memory hungry (with my setup). Choose wisely.

General Structure of VS Code configurations

See code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings.

Basically, there is a global “user” setting.json (ctrl+shift+P: user settings) valid across workspaces and for each workspace a speciffic workspace settings.json (ctrl+shift+P: workspace settings) in .vscode folder in the current workspace.
The workspace settings overwrite the (global) user settings
Beside the workspace settings in .vscode folder can be also extensions.json holding recommended extensions (see code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/extension-marketplace) and launch.json
launch.json holds configurations for running/debuging with F5, ctrl+F5, or left pane. However, these options are valid only in workspace. To save these options in global way, the configurations should be specified in user settings.json in configurations:
```
// Global debug launch configuration. Should be used as an alternative to 'launch.json' that is shared across workspaces.
"launch": {
  "configurations": [
     {configuration 1 goes here},
     {configuration 2 goes here},
     ...
  ],
  "compounds": []
},
```
How to create the launch configuration:
- left pane -> Run and Debug -> dropdown on top: Add Configuration
- this creates configuration in workspace launch.json. However, this can be copied into user launch configurations specified in user settings.json (and of course edited)

Python specific configurations

Accept debug console sugestions via Enter: ctrl+P -> settings json (workspace or user): add "debug.console.acceptSuggestionOnEnter": "on"
Debuging into library code in python: open launch configuration (or ctrl+shift+P -> Debug: Add configuration): set “justMyCode” to false
Add current workspace folder to PYTHONPATH for debuging: open launch configuration (or ctrl+shift+P -> Debug: Add configuration) and add:
```
  "env": {
              "PYTHONPATH": "${workspaceFolder}"
         }
```
To add current workspace folder for running python with top-right button: to settings.json (user or workspace) add:
```
  "terminal.integrated.env.linux": {
      "PYTHONPATH": "${workspaceFolder}"
  }
```
To add current workspace folder for running in python interactive window (top-right button, jupyter extension needed):
- make sure to have "python.envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env" in settings.json (workspace, or user but not overwritten)
- create .env file in workspace with the following entry: PYTHONPATH="/PATH/TO/YOUR/WORKSPACE" (this file defines enviromental variables)
To ensure that pytests can be used from the left Menu “Testing” tab:
- follow the instructions above on .env file setup
- make sure that there are no tests (python files starting or ending with “test”) with syntactical errors or missing imports in the project folder

General note on enviroment variables

Following the pattern in Python specific configurations, to make the enviroment variables work in debug mode, interactive window mode as well as in terminal, they unfortunatelly need to be set in two places:

in user or workspace settings.json in “terminal.integrated.env.linux” block
in the .env file inside the workspace folder, while also having "python.envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env" in settings.json specified (workspace, or user but not overwritten)

Bugs

Visual studio keeps downgrading and upgrading back (windows user installation): install zip version of VS Code (this needs to be update manually, probably via redownlaoding newer version)

Extensions

Code Spell Checker English spelling checker, suggestions on hower or via ctrl+.
Codeium: AI Coding Autocomplete and Chat for Python, Javascript, Typescript, Java, Go, and more
Databricks Run code on Databricks cluster. Warning: at least on WSL it uses too much CPU now. Consider disabling and enabling only when needed
Databricks Driver for SQLTools run SQL queries against Databricks. Warning: at least on WSL it uses too much CPU now. Consider disabling and enabling only when needed.
Git Graph: Visualizes your git history.
Git Extension Pack: package of good git extensions
GitHub Actions: overview running github actions and set github secrets
GitHub Pull Requests and Issues: create and merge github pull requests directly from VS Code
Jekyll Run: One-click run your Jekyll website
Markdown+Math: The only extension I found which renders nicely Markdown+Katex into HTML. Unfortunatelly not into PDF, the best way to convert to PDF is to open the reulting PDF in browser and print to PDF (as stated here)
WSL: Work in VS code under WSL. Use native linux terminal, git, python/conda installed under WSL etc.