April Speight - Visual Studio Code for Python Programmers

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. APPENDIX

April Speight

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Published simultaneously in Canada.

ISBN: 978-1-119-77336-8

ISBN: 978-1-119-77338-2 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-119-77337-5 (ebk)

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For Python developers in need of a home for their code.

And Ericyou were right. But with that aside, you're the most supportive partner an author could ever ask for in this thing we call life. We're two halves of a whole. My success is your success, and your success is my success.

April Speight is a developer who specializes in Python and conversational design for chatbots and AI assistants. Her passion for learning and teaching Python led to her first published title, Bite-Size Python: An Introduction to Python Programming. She currently works on content creation and developer community engagement for Spatial Computing and Mixed Reality at Microsoft.

Kraig Brockschmidt has worked on technical developer content for more than 30 years, publishing books, articles, sample code, and documentation for multiple programming languages and development platforms. He currently works on developer documentation at Microsoft, specializing in using Python on Microsoft's cloud computing platform, Azure. He also authored the original set of documentation for the Python extension for Visual Studio Code.

Many thanks to those who have spent time creating, contributing, and improving what I consider to be the optimal solution for a code editor. I would be completely remiss if I didn't personally thank Kraig Brockschmidt, my technical editor on this book; thanks again for your time and commitment.

Also, thanks goes to Rob for being an open ear throughout this entire process. Although I didn't understand what coding was in undergrad, the fact that you did it so often intrigued me. Because of you, I've discovered a new skillset that has evolved into where I am professionally in my career.

What started as an announcement at Microsoft Build 2015 has evolved into the Most Popular Development Environment, as ranked in the 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. Visual Studio Code is a free, open-source, cross-platform code editor developed by Microsoft as part of the Visual Studio family. In comparison to its Visual Studio counterpart, Visual Studio Code is a streamlined code editor for a quick code-build-debug cycle. This feature-rich editor includes support for code completion, refactoring, formatting, managing source code, collaboration, debugging, unit testing, and more.

This book introduces Visual Studio Code through the lens of a Python developer. Editor features are introduced and explored with examples applicable to Python development. The goal of this book is to help acclimate you to Visual Studio Code features and to help you develop an efficient development workflow.

Stay up-to-date with new Visual Studio Code and Python features by visiting the Microsoft Developer Blog at devblogs.microsoft.com/python.

Those who are in search of a comprehensive introduction to Visual Studio Code for Python development will benefit most from reading this book. It was written for developers with a working knowledge of Python. Although this book does not provide instruction for learning Python development, it includes general programming concepts, such as managing source control, unit testing, and debugging to name a few, which are explored as they relate to Visual Studio Code features. Python tools and libraries that fall outside of the Python Standard Library are also explored and provided with a foundational understanding to complete the exercises throughout this book.

Here's the book at a glance:

• : Getting Started introduces the Visual Studio Code interface and the Extension Marketplace. Instructions on how to customize the editor are provided, alongside keyboard shortcuts for quickly executing commands. The keyboard shortcuts are also provided, following the convention of iOS/Windows and Linux (e.g., Cmd+C/Ctrl+C is the shortcut to Copy).