If you're a software developer, you know how important it is to have a development environment that is flexible, efficient, and easy to use. PyCharm is a popular IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Python developers, but there are other options out there that may suit your needs better. One such option is Visual Studio Code, or VS Code for short.
After using PyCharm for a while, I decided to give VS Code a try, and I was pleasantly surprised by one of its features: the remote container development extension. This extension allows you to develop your code in containers, with no footprint on your local machine at all. This means that you can have a truly ephemeral solution, enabling abstraction to the maximum.
So, how does it work? First, you need to create two files: a Dockerfile and a devcontainer.json file. These files should be located in a hidden .devcontainer folder at the root location of any of your GitHub projects.
The Dockerfile is used to build the container image that will be used for development. Here's a sample Dockerfile that installs Python3, sudo, and SQLite3:
FROM ubuntu:20.04
ARG DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
RUN apt-get update -y
RUN apt-get install -y python3
RUN apt-get install -y sudo
RUN apt-get install -y sqlite3
The devcontainer.json file is used to configure the development environment in the container. Here's a sample devcontainer.json file that sets the workspace folder to "/workspaces/alpha", installs the "ms-python.python" extension, and forwards port 8000:
{
"name": "hammer",
"build": {
"context": ".",
"dockerfile": "./Dockerfile"
},
"workspaceFolder": "/workspaces/alpha",
"extensions": [
"ms-python.python"
],
"forwardPorts": [
8000
]
}
Once you have these files ready, you can clone your GitHub code down to a Visual Studio Code container volume. Here's how to do it:
- Start Visual Studio Code
- Make sure you have the "Remote Development" extension installed and enabled
- Go to the "Remote Explorer" extension from the button menu
- Click "Clone Repository in Container Volume" at the bottom left
- In the Command Palette, choose "Clone a repository from GitHub in a Container Volume" and pick your GitHub repo.
That's it! You are now tracking your code inside a container volume, built by a Dockerfile which is also being tracked on GitHub together with all your environment-specific extensions you require for development.
The VS Code remote container development extension is a powerful tool for developers who need a flexible, efficient, and easy-to-use development environment. By using containers, you can create an ephemeral solution that allows you to abstract away the complexities of development environments and focus on your code. If you're looking for a new IDE or just want to try something different, give VS Code a try with the remote container development extension.
