editors.md¶

Editors and Development Environment Glossary¶

A reference for code editors and the development environment.

Code Editor¶

A program designed for writing and editing code. Provides features like syntax highlighting, error detection, and terminal integration.

VS Code (Visual Studio Code)¶

A free, widely used code editor developed by Microsoft. Supports Python, Git integration, terminal access, and extensions. Recommended editor for all operating systems. Download: https://code.visualstudio.com/

Zed Editor¶

A fast, modern code editor built for performance. An alternative to VS Code, gaining adoption in the developer community. Download: https://zed.dev/

Extension¶

A plugin that adds functionality to a code editor. VS Code examples: Python extension, Pylance (type checking), GitLens (Git history).

Integrated Terminal¶

A terminal built into the code editor to run commands without switching to a separate application. In VS Code: View / Terminal, or Ctrl+` (backtick).

Syntax Highlighting¶

Color-coding applied to code by the editor to make structure and keywords easier to read. Different colors indicate different elements (strings, functions, keywords).

Linter¶

A tool that analyzes code for style issues, errors, and potential bugs without running it. Helps enforce consistent code quality. Example: ruff.

Formatter¶

A tool that automatically rewrites code to conform to style standards. Example: ruff format enforces consistent indentation, spacing, and line length.

ruff¶

A fast Python linter and formatter. Configured in pyproject.toml. Run with uv run ruff check . and uv run ruff format .

Workspace¶

In VS Code, a workspace is the folder opened as the project root. Open a project by opening its top-level folder in VS Code.

Settings (settings.json)¶

A VS Code configuration file that controls editor behavior per workspace or globally. Can configure Python interpreter, formatting on save, and other preferences.