Update project configuration and dependencies

- Added `.vscode` to `.gitignore` to exclude Visual Studio Code settings.
- Updated `pyproject.toml` to include `ruff` for linting and configured its settings.
- Modified `uv.lock` to include `ruff` in both optional and development dependencies.
- Refactored type hints in several files to use `str | None` for optional parameters.
- Cleaned up unused imports and whitespace in various modules for improved code clarity.

.gitignore

@@ -10,6 +10,6 @@ main.py
 .venv
 .idea
 .DS_Store
-
+.vscode
 # etc files
 *.txt