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A helpful question on using a local markdown.css: local markdown.css

VS Code

VS Code is a general editor, made for working with lots of different kinds of projects - but kept lightweight. Portability to platforms like MacOS and Linux are also high priorities.

Note that to get a preview of this document in VS Code use Ctrl-Shift-V A good place to start is the Help/Welcome command

Command Palette

For some reason this is not always visible, if it is hidden to go to View/Command Palette or Ctrl-Shift-P. There is also Ctrl-P, no idea what the difference is.

Language Mode

  • The current language mode (like Markdown or Python) is shown in the bottom status bar on the right.
  • You can change it by clicking on it.

Settings

  • bring up the settings page with ctrl-, (Control comma)
  • Then toggle between User and Workspace with the displayed tab
  • Switch to direct editing of the settings.json file with the Open Settings command in the command palette
  • Everything is explained here: (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings)

.vscode

  • vscode file is loaded when you open a directory and a .vscode subdirectory is there
  • To create it make a launch.json and save it Example: 
    {
  // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
  // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
  // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [

      {
          "name": "Python: Current File",
          "type":"python",
          "request":"launch",
          "program":"${file}",
          "console":"integratedTerminal"
      },
      {
          "name": "Python: launch.py",
          "type":"python",
          "request":"launch",
          "program":"${workspaceFolder}/ml-agents/mlagents/trainers/learn.py",
          "args": ["config/trainer_config.yaml","--train", "--run-id=codetest01"],
          "console":"integratedTerminal",
          "pythonPath": "${config:python.pythonPath}" 
      },
  ]
}

Python debugging

  • See if you get the same settings in your terminal window that you do in the command line
  • which python and which conda is your friend

Extensions

Extensions are the lifeblood of VS Code, lots of people write them. To get to them click on the square in a square icon on the left naviagtion bar. You can then search for new ones.

Useful command palette things to know :

  • Show installed extensions

Find the extensions

Useful extenstions to install:

  • Python (the one from Don Jayamanne)
  • Markdown Lint
  • Markdown Theme
  • Markdown TOC

Themes

Go to Command Palette and type in Themes (I kind of like “Solarized Dark”)

Opening folders

VS Code manages its settings on a folder basis, so you should have a folder for each project that you are doing (one that needs seperate settings) and do an “Open Folder” from the VS Code menu when you switch to working with that project. At this point I am not sure if you can have two folders open at the same time, it seems you can although you wonder whose setting take priority.

Settings

Settings are explained here: settings

Go to Command Palette and type in Settings and then choose the one you want - two of the most ineresting are the User settings and the Workspace settings:
Command Palette

You get a list of the settings you can change to the left of the settings you are editing. You can have VScode copy them over by clicking on the pencil icon (which is not that obvious).

Editing User Settings

Storing stuff

  • The user settings are stored in C:/Users/mike/AppData/Roaming/Code/User/settings.json
  • The Extensions are stored in C:/Users/mike/.vscode/extensions
  • The folder specific settings are stored in ..\folder/.vscode/settings.json
  • The language specfic launch settings are stored in ..\folder/.vscode/launch.json

Key bindings

  • File > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
    alt text

VS Code and Markdown

  • This might become a big topic, but for now we will lump it in here.
  • Some good stuff on colors here: colors
  • A helpful question on using a local markdown.css: local markdown.css

Starting a markdown topic

  • create a markdown folder under local/markdownnotes
  • put an md file in there
  • add a markdown.css
  • open it as a folder in VSCode
  • Because we have the settings to search for markdown.css in the user settings now you should not have to have change local workspace settings
  • preview with Ctrl-Shift-V

Integrated Command Shell Terminals

  • Described here: (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal)
  • Open settings with Ctrl-, (Control comma) and select User settings then search for “terminal” (it is at the bottom)
  • What I put into the user settings.json to get the Anaconda prompt as my terminal: 
    ...
"editor.largeFileOptimizations": false,
"terminal.integrated.shell.windows.old": "C:\\WINDOWS\\Sysnative\\cmd.exe",
"terminal.integrated.shell.windows": "C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\cmd.exe",
"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": "/K \"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\VS15Preview\\Anaconda3_64\\Scripts\\activate.bat\"  C:\\Users\\mike\\AppData\\Local\\conda\\conda\\envs\\py27",
"workbench.iconTheme": "material-icon-theme",
"sync.gist": "b87eb69b843edf2e04b46f1174ed051b"
}

## Python Project To figure out what is being set look in the launch.json fie in .vscode sub-directory of the folder you opened as vscode:
alt text