RFC: Adding support for `ruff` (and possibly other linters) in "Code Analysis"

[rear1019]

(Note: This is not a bug report, but a "Request for Comments")

Spyder has a "Code Analysis" pane (internal plugin name: pylint) which displays results of the pylint linter for a given file. As the internal plugin name suggests, only pylint is supported. I have opened this issue to explore if Spyder developers and users are interested in having support for ruff (and possibly other linters) in addition to pylint.

We are currently considering to add support for ruff. We are aware that there is already "on-the-fly" support via the language server (#24908). However, some users may find the "Code Analysis" pane more comfortable to use than scrolling in the editor or using the "errors/warnings" actions/submenu in the "Source" main menu.

[ccordoba12]

Hey @rear1019, thanks for opening this issue! Yes, we're very much interested in adding this feature and removing the menu Source > Show warning/error list, which is our poor man's approach to have something like that.

My idea would be to have two tabs in the Code analysis pane: one for static analysis, with the same functionality we have right now, and another one for real time analysis, which would show the results of the active LSP linter in the editor.

What do you think?

[rear1019]

We thought of reusing LSP results, but weren't sure how to do so. This is how we came up with the idea to add support for additional "static analysis" tools beside pylint in "Code Analysis".

With hindsight, your idea is obvious and I really like it. Instead of using tabs, we could add an additional level in the tree view of "Code Analysis" to denote the source. I think it might also be sensible to add an additional level for linter rules ("Code Analysis" currently only groups by Convetion/Refactor/Warning/Error, and sorts by rule number + line number within the groups.)

v LSP (ruff)
  > B015 useless-comparison
  > B905 zip-without-explicit-strict
> mypy
v Pylint
  v Convention
    v C0301 line-too-loong
      |- line x
      |- line y
      |- line z
    > C3002 too-many-lines
  > Refactor
  > Error
  > Warning

PS: As I read through it again, I realize that it might be confusing that LSP results are constantly updated but static linters are not when using the same tree view.

[rear1019]

@ccordoba12 For your information: We (probably) will start working on this feature in March