I've switched from PyCharm to VSCode a few months ago, mostly because VSCode is faster and I use it anyhow for JS development.

For me, one of the most important features of an IDE/Editor is quickly add imports, and I just don't understand how VSCode has such a great reputation but is so so bad at this for Python. I half suspect/hope that this due to some misconfiguration from me, so please help me out if this is working good for you!

Here are some examples that I keep running into:

#1: Import Typings

Let's say I'm defining a function:

def foo(bar: List[Dict[str, Any]]):
    pass

And I wanna import the type definitions. Every reasonable IDE would put the from typing import ... suggestion at the very top. VSCode gives me 20+ partially matched suggestions that are alphabetically sorted sorted and I have to find the correct one. In contrast: PyCharm puts it on the top and it takes me a few milliseconds to import it. VSCode on the other hand rips me out of my flow and I have to search for 10+ seconds.

#2: Import from Project Files

This just happened to me: I have a Python project and created a new file shared.py where I defined an object with a pretty unique name. If I go to another file and write it, VSCode is completely lost. It has no clue what that is and where it could import it from. In contrast: PyCharm mostly get's it right, but takes a second or two sometimes.

#3: Auto-Import messes up the Code

In the cases VSCode actually finds suggestions from my code, it often keeps messing it up by confusing files with variables.

Example:

I have a file myproject/settings.py that contains a Pydantic class called Settings(BaseSettings):... and a variable settings = Settings(). Now, I see that these three kinds of "settings" can be confusing: The file, the class and the variable. However, PyCharm has a smart enough heuristic to understand that most of the time, I want to import the variable settings and puts it as the first suggestion. VSCode, on the other hand, doesn't even get that: The only suggestions I get are the file import settings OR the class from settings import Settings. You have no idea how often I quickly picked the second one, only to realise that VSCode not only added the wrong import, but also changed my code from settings to Settings, messing up my code.

Question: What to do?

My goal isn't to bash VSCode, because I want to keep using it. I just notice more and more how it gets in the way and keeps disrupting my flow with bad suggestions and wrong imports. And I find it hard to believe I'm the only one who's suffering from this, so please share your experience! It would be a shame if I have to move back to PyCharm and say goodbye to countless GB of RAM...

Here is my general setup / things I tried:

• Python interpreter is correctly configured and VSCode restarted after

• Interpreter is coming from a Poetry virtual env

• Extensions:

  • Python

  • Pylance

  • Visual Studio IntelliCode

• Relevant Settings:

    "python.diagnostics.sourceMapsEnabled": true,
    "vsintellicode.features.python.deepLearning": "enabled",
    "python.analysis.indexing": true,  // Found that somewhere on SO
    "python.languageServer": "Pylance",
    "python.autoComplete.addBrackets": true,
    "python.analysis.completeFunctionParens": true

I would really love to hear what you folks have to say to that and how I can improve my python experience in VSCode!

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