Docker Environment Setup Guide

The notebooks can be run and developed in a docker container without the need to install any software packages on your local machine. This guide will walk you through that process.

Download and install Docker

The easiest way to get started with docker is by installing Docker Desktop for your relevant platform.

Linux (Ubuntu) users may prefer to install the Docker Engine instead and follow the post installation steps.

Install VSCode

Whilst devcontainers work with other IDEs as well, I prefer to use Visual Studio Code. Install it if you don't have it and want to use it. The instructions below will be VSCode specific but a similar process should apply to PyCharm as well.

Clone and cd into the project root directory.
Type code . in the terminal to open the project in VSCode. Alternatively, you can launch VSCode and select the project to open from the UI.
Install the Remote Development extension from the Extensions tab.
Since the .devcontainer folder is present, VSCode should automatically detect it and ask whether you would like to open the project in a devcontainer. If it doesn't, simply press Ctrl + Shift + P to open the command palette and start typing dev containers to see a list of all Dev Container specific options.
Select Reopen in Container.
Once the image has been pulled and built, you should have your project mounted inside the container with all the packages installed, ready for development.