Best method for folding Python code (or other way to browse)?

[ipsod]

I want aggressive code folding in Python.

I want folded code to read like a structured table of contents that I can just directly dive into by opening folds. I don’t want anything smaller than function/method definitions folded (no folding brackets or if, while, etc.). I want python @properties and docstrings folded with their methods/classes/etc. When fully-folded, I really just want functions, classes, methods, other class attributes, and all top-level variables/code to show up, and no whitespace except between non-class non-function top-level code (I can comment a line, if I want whitespace there).

vim-coiled-snake is really, really close to what I want (I’d like it to fold more whitespace), but it makes the editor so slow it’s unusable (it sometimes takes 10+ seconds to delete a single line).

Folding all code with zM, jumping around, then unfolding code as I find what I’m after just feels like the “right” way to browse code, and it’s how I interact with vim most often. It seems so obvious, that I can’t believe it’s so hard to find a working solution. It makes me wonder, am I trying to do something dumb? Is there a better way? Is there a working solution I don’t know about?

[kay-adamof]

Hi, @ipsod

I’m not sure if I’m understanding what you are saying correctly, but you might try the following plugin.

GitHub - stevearc/aerial.nvim: Neovim plugin for a code outline window

[ipsod]

Hi! That looks like it could work better than nothing, so I’ll give it a try.

Would it make more sense if I said I want folding to hide everything not essential to getting an overview of the code’s structure? I don’t like the context jump between code-itself and a navigator with an abstract representation of the code. I find it mentally expensive - it doesn’t flow. Also, these navigators all hide so much information that I’d actually like to see (arguments, return value type, single-line comments, etc.), and if they didn’t, they’d take up too much screen real-estate.

This is how folding currently is, with decorator lines cluttering and unnecessary whitespace that makes getting an overview require a lot of scrolling:

[ipsod]

This is how I want it to be (though if it kept highlighting while folded, like nvim-ufo, it’d be better):