Burke Holland

Posted on Feb 16, 2021 • Originally published at burkeholland.github.io on Feb 11, 2021

Beginner's series to Dev Containers free video course

#beginners #tutorial #programming #python

"Knowledge isn't free. You have to pay attention."

— Richard Feynman

Ok, but all “play on words” aside, knowledge is free. That’s the key contribution of the internet, isn’t it? That all knowledge is now essentially free? And this is kind of a recent development. It used to cost quite a bit to learn the skills that will make you successful. I mean, there is still a 700 billion dollar industry built on selling you knowledge.

Even better, you can learn what you need instead of things that you might need. It’s been several decades and I have not once used “Slope Intercept Form”. NOT. ONCE. Well, that’s a lie, I had to use it to help my kid with his homework at which point I Googled it. Like an adult.

But this post is not a shot at Algebra (I love you math people - really I do), this is about MORE free knowledge. Specficially, an 8 part video series on how to use “Development Containers”.

If you prefer reading to videos (you do you) you can get this whole series as step-by-step tutorial on Microsoft Learn.

Development Containers

Development Containers (or Dev Containers) are just Docker containers. But we add a little VS Code magic in the form of the Remote - Containers extension that allows you to develop inside of the container right from the editor.

Now why would you do this? Because once you define a container definition for a project, you can check it in to source as a config file. Then any developer could immediately spin up the right dev environment with zero configuration. No Python install. No copy/paste cryptic terminal commands from Stack Overflow.

So how does this work? I’m glad you asked! Or didn’t ask! Either way, queue up episode 1…

Episode 1:

Start your learning with developing in a Docker container in Visual Studio Code. Learn what it means to configure a container-based development environment, why you might want to develop in a container in VS Code, and what lies ahead in the rest of this video series.