Visual Studio Code Extension for MPRemote

[DavesCodeMusings]

If you're a fan of VS Code for development work, I have an extension that provides command palette access to a lot of MPRemote's functionality. I've recently made some improvements to the code and documentation.

You may want to check it out if:

• You prefer point and click to typing command-line options
• You like Thonny, but really wish it had git functionality

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DavesCodeMusings.mpremote

I also have a VS Code extension for esptool so you can flash devices using point and click dialogs instead of command-line.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DavesCodeMusings.esptool

[Wind-stormger]

Hello, can you add graphical buttons and intuitive list of files that can be displayed in the sidebar of VScode?

[DavesCodeMusings]

No buttons, but I did manage to add context menus for some of the commands where it makes sense. For example, right-click in the editor window and you get the option to run or cp (upload) the file. You can also right-click the Explorer pane and have the option to sync the local directory tree to the flash filesystem (recursive copy.)

All commands are still available from the command palette (CTRL+SHIFT+P)

Editor window context menu:

Explorer pane context menu:

[Wind-stormger]

Much better! 😄

Don't worry, referring to the source code of other open source extension plug-in projects may help you understand.

For example: https://github.com/huizhougit/githd

Or other open source projects that you think are better~

Let's talk about the content of this update:

This one doesn't seem to work with MPRemote: Change remote working directory (chdir), after I select the port and enter the correct absolute path, Enter doesn't respond.

I would like these two items to automatically close the current REPL first when executing MPRemote: Run file shown in the active editor (run) and MPRemote: Upload file to remote filesystem (cp). Manually going to the terminal to close is a bit complicated.

[DavesCodeMusings]

Can you check the link? It's giving me a 404 error.

chdir is a bit of an oddity. It doesn't actually do anything on the remote system, it simply sets the parent path for anything you upload. So if you chdir to /temp and then do an upload of main.py in your editor, the file ends up as /temp/main.py. It's admittedly a bit clumsy. I think opening a folder in VS Code and then using sync is a much better approach. sync does a recursive copy of the files in the (VS Code) open folder to the microcontroller's flash filesystem.

As far as closing the REPL automatically, I'm not exactly sure how to do that. I could send a CTRL-X to the terminal, but if the REPL's not open, you'd get an unwanted character. Not exactly sure how I'd detect if it was open or not.

[Wind-stormger]

link update

[Wind-stormger]

Not exactly sure how I'd detect if it was open or not.

The easy way to do that is to ignore it, CTRL-X , newline, and continue.

[DavesCodeMusings]

Deleted outdated screenshots to avoid confusion

[DavesCodeMusings]

Recent improvements include a context menu for access to commands by right-clicking the device's serial port name in the Explorer pane (lower left corner of screenshot.)

You can find out more in the wiki: https://github.com/DavesCodeMusings/mpremote-vscode/wiki

[Gogin79]

Hello, I have some problems with this extension. I had to switched from windows to GNU/Linux from many reasons. I use Debian with LXDE eviroment. I installed vscode via snap store a mpremote via pipx because it is the right and security way for now how mpremote install to Debian. Because -> https://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/micropython-mpremote . Problem is that mpremote:command in vscode, for example calling command to the REPL -> python3 -m mpremote connect /dev/ttyUSB0 repl and it is right but on my PC it is wrong. In case when I installed mpremote using pipx so the command for using mpremote is just only one word "mpremote". It is posible to fix it please. Ofcourse I will looking for another solution which VScode offers. Excus my English please. I hoop you understood.

[andrewleech]

@DavesCodeMusings that sounds like a good option to me, though I'd also suggest you could have it auto-fallback, eg. Try running python3 -m mpremote and if that fails just run mpremote and let the user ensure it's on the path somewhere.

What @Gogin79 reports has become standard practice on many linux distributions, where they have become quite forceful in trying to prevent users from pip installing packages directly into the system. I personally hate this annoying nag, but I guess they've got their reasons. Regardless, using tools like pipx to install python tools like mpremote is definitely gaining popularity!

I'm curious when you say you use Windows primarily, do you run it with python3 -m mpremote there too? I guess this works if the user has the microsoft store version of python installed, but would also generally fail if they've installed the official python packages which use py instead.

[DavesCodeMusings]

On windoze, it's py.exe -m mpremote. I download from python.org and install using the defaults, which puts py.exe in the system path.

I have a function in the extension that tries to figure out the executable name based on OS.

export function getPythonExecutableName() {
    let pythonBinary = 'py.exe';  // Assume this is a Windows system for now.
    if (process.platform !== 'win32') {  // win32 is returned for 64-bit OS as well
        pythonBinary = 'python3';
    }
    console.debug('Using Python executable:', pythonBinary);
    return pythonBinary;
}

[andrewleech]

Ah, so in that case my comment is true but in reverse - it should work with windows when the python.org dist is installed, but fail if the microsoft store version is used (it's all just such a mess). Again, if this falled back on failure to just use mpremote that could work on any platform if the path is setup appropriatly.

[Gogin79]

If mpremote will install via pipx. So anywhere you write command "mpremote" to the terminal is does not matter whatever folder you are in will start mpremote. All what is installed via pipx is starting from virtual enviroment. PATHs are obvious from image.

@DavesCodeMusings
It would be great if you can this condition implented to the VS code. Another users will not have to solve this problem in future.

[Gogin79]

Another possibilties is use this https://github.com/dhylands/rshell . But I am very happy with extension MPRemote. Thank you @DavesCodeMusings .

[DavesCodeMusings]

A Windows user, a Mac user, and a Linux user walk into a bar. The bartender says...

According to the doc for installing mpremote it looks like Linux users can just type mpremote. Installing with pip or pipx doesn't seem to matter. Can I get a Linux user to confirm that?

Also, is there a Mac user who can do the same? Just type mpremote at a shell prompt and see if it works.

If this method works for both Mac and Linux, I think it's safe to just use mpremote to run commands on those operating systems and skip the whole python3 -m mpremote thing.

[andrewleech]

I just tested this on my partners macbook:

• installed official python 3.11 from python.org
• open terminal

mba:~ $ pip3 install mpremote
... normal pip install stuff
mba:~ $ mpremote --version
mpremote 1.21.0

[DavesCodeMusings]

Sweet! Thanks everyone. I think I have what I need to correctly invoke mpremote on Linux, Mac, and Windows. It'll take a while to rework the extension, but at least I know the direction to take.

[DavesCodeMusings]

I've just published v1.21.8 of the extension to hopefully make this work better. I use VS Code on Windows, so I can tell you the changes didn't break anything there. As to the effect for Linux and Mac users, I'm hoping I can get some folks with those OS to reply with your results.

For those interested in the details, this is how the extension determines how to call mpremote:

export function getMPRemoteName() {
    let mpremote = 'python3 -m mpremote';
    switch (process.platform) {
        case 'win32':  // win32 is returned for 64-bit OS as well
            mpremote = 'py.exe -m mpremote';
            break;
        case 'linux':
        case 'darwin':
            mpremote = 'mpremote';
            break;
    }
    console.debug('Calling mpremote as:', mpremote);
    return mpremote;

[Gogin79]

Hello @DavesCodeMusings . On Linux (Debian) everything works fine. Good job. Thank you.

[DavesCodeMusings]

Thanks for testing.