docs: def get_lines_without_comments(filename: str) -> List[str]:
      """
      Reads a file, and returns all lines as a list, left- and right-stripping
      the lines and removing everything on a line after the first ``#``.
      NOTE: does not cope well with quoted ``#`` symbols!
      """
      lines = []
      with open(filename) as f:
          for line in f:
              line = line.partition('#')[0]  # the part before the first #
              line = line.rstrip()
              line = line.lstrip()
              if line:
                  lines.append(line)
      return lines