Code Editor setting for Python IntelliSense in Jupyter notebooks

[SeijiSuenaga]

When using Code Editor in SageMaker Studio (where the latest available distribution is currently 1.5), I've found that Python cells in Jupyter notebooks have no IntelliSense unless I configure this setting, then reload the page:

"python.languageServer": "Jedi"

Would it be acceptable to add that to template/v1/dirs/etc/code-editor/code_editor_machine_settings.json?

The problem might be resolved in a newer version of the Jupyter extension, judging by microsoft/vscode-jupyter#12494, but unfortunately the latest version on open-vsx.org is 6+ months out of date. 😕

[edwardps]

Thanks Seiji for reporting this. We will track this request and evaluate the default languageServer configuration internally.

[claytonparnell]

@edwardps are there any updates we can share here?

[j0bekt01]

With notebooks, IntelliSense defaults to Jedi. Set it to Pylance instead, as it is much more feature-rich than Jedi. You can add "python.languageServer": "Pylance" to your startup lifecycle policy.

[SeijiSuenaga]

@j0bekt01 Does that require Pylance to be installed? As far as I know, the Pylance extension isn't available in Code Editor because Microsoft restricts it to their proprietary VS Code distribution.

[j0bekt01]

There's a Python extension that's already installed in our SM so I either go to the extension settings and pick Pylance over Jedi or append the line above to the settings file.

[pjoe]

I think @SeijiSuenaga is correct. When you select pylance code editor prompts to install the extension ms-python.vscode-pylance, but is unable to do so. I tried manually downloading the vsix, but this also fails installing, with an error about vscode version. Also noticed that extension is not on OpenVSX :S

[pjoe]

Jedi does enable some limited intellisense for python stdlibs, but nothing for e.g. spark :S

[j0bekt01]

I think @SeijiSuenaga is correct. When you select pylance code editor prompts to install the extension ms-python.vscode-pylance, but is unable to do so. I tried manually downloading the vsix, but this also fails installing, with an error about vscode version. Also noticed that extension is not on OpenVSX :S

This extension is on openVSX
https://open-vsx.org/extension/ms-python/python

it should already be baked into the distribution image see here: https://github.com/aws/sagemaker-distribution/blob/main/build_artifacts/v2/v2.0/v2.0.0/dirs/etc/code-editor/extensions.txt

[pjoe]

@j0bekt01 this is not the same extension, we are talking about the pylance extension, NOT the python extension, see here:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.vscode-pylance

vs.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python

note the different IDs ms-python.python vs. ms-python.vscode-pylance

[j0bekt01]

@j0bekt01 this is not the same extension, we are talking about the pylance extension, NOT the python extension, see here:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.vscode-pylance

vs.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-python.python

note the different IDs ms-python.python vs. ms-python.vscode-pylance

oh, I see. The openvsx one should have support for pylance

[pjoe]

It's not quite like that.

ms-python.python has support for automatically installing ms-python.vscode-pylance. However installing the pylance extension is what fails

[imarquart]

pylance does not exist on openvsx and we were not successful activating Pylance in any sort of configuration.
The OpenVSX python extension can not install Pylance, as it does not exist. It fails in installing Pylance, but does so silently. Setting LanguageServer to Pylance then leads to no Python support at all. Jedi is, of course, vastly inferior.

As such:

• Is there any way to remediate this issue?
• Are there any plans to provide better Python support?

If there really isn't any way to do this, or if the AWS team really is not aware of the issue, I also have the following question:

• Has anyone at AWS actually ever tried productive coding in Python using Sagemaker?

[SeijiSuenaga]

@imarquart FWIW, for plain .py files you can install the Pyright extension, which Pylance is built upon. It includes some basic language server features like renaming variables, but it intentionally doesn't support notebooks. There is also a Pyright fork called basedpyright that re-implements some Pylance features, but it currently doesn't support notebooks either.☹️

Since Microsoft made Pylance proprietary, I feel like the Python ecosystem desperately needs an open-source alternative that works in notebooks, but I haven't found one yet. It'd be awesome if AWS used some of their vast resources to improve this tooling in SageMaker...

[Julfried]

I can 100% agree here. Currently working on Sagemaker Code Instances is just not that great, as there is no syntax highlighting and proper intelisense configuration!

[Steinkreis]

+1 We want to use the Code Editor more extensively at our company in the future, but we definitely need syntax highlighting and proper intellisense configuration. Currently it's just very painful to work with imo. Is there no way for AWS to include Pylance into the distribution?