add devcontainer

[kleinlennart]

@davidpomerenke's recommended Python environment:

• https://github.com/radix-ai/poetry-cookiecutter
• https://github.com/radix-ai/my-package/blob/main/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

@kleinlennart likes to use a custom R container based on rocker:

• https://github.com/rocker-org/devcontainer-images/blob/main/build/args.json
• https://github.com/rocker-org/devcontainer-features

@vogelino needs?

• https://github.com/devcontainers/features/tree/main/src/node

[kleinlennart]

Added R devcontainer bdb650aa2e9a41870ec86c71375ba5196cc210cb

[kleinlennart]

@davidpomerenke's wishlist:

• Python 3.10
• Poetry (with proper setup)
• Ruff
• Starship Shell
• VS Code extensions:

  "ms-python.python",
  "ms-toolsai.jupyter",
  "charliermarsh.ruff",
  "tamasfe.even-better-toml",
  "visualstudioexptteam.vscodeintellicode",
  "mhutchie.git-graph",
  "sandcastle.vscode-open",
  "ms-vscode-remote.vscode-remote-extensionpack",
  "ms-vsliveshare.vsliveshare",
  "github.copilot",
  "github.copilot-chat"

[kleinlennart]

Use ubuntu:jammy as base image?

[davidpomerenke]

I've set up all Python stuff and some extensions and settings in https://github.com/SocialChangeLab/media-impact-monitor/commit/8137a4c3937182d04d60683afb8c129d1fc14ad4

However for setting up a custom Dockerfile, I had to remove the reference to the original Dockerfile (ghcr.io/rocker-org/devcontainer/tidyverse:4.3) I'm not sure how we would best bring its functionality back. I looked up the source of that image and traced it back a few steps, and what it essentially does is execute these two scripts:

• https://github.com/rocker-org/rocker-versioned2/blob/master/scripts/install_R_source.sh
• https://github.com/rocker-org/rocker-versioned2/blob/master/scripts/install_tidyverse.sh

For the first one of these, there is also an alternative script: https://github.com/rocker-org/rocker-versioned2/blob/master/scripts/install_R_ppa.sh

We could probably simplify this by just using the official installation instructions: https://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/fullREADME.html

Or maybe there is some devcontainer-feature that installs R itself?

[kleinlennart]

Nice! Don't worry about the rocker image, I will get it to work again. Probably nicer to have a lightweight R installation anyways. Most R packages can be installed via apt-get on Ubuntu and there is also a devcontainer-feature for it that automatically installs all system dependencies as well. Probably improves container build times if I add this to the devcontainer and not the Dockerfile so we don't have to do a Full Rebuild for every new R package. But I will probably use renv for dependency management anyway.

[kleinlennart]

Is there a specific reason why you added the Dockerfile to the main folder instead of .devontainer?

[davidpomerenke]

No reason, I changed it now 👍 https://github.com/SocialChangeLab/media-impact-monitor/commit/318f61f8a492001a6e989721adb91205ed7f5408

[kleinlennart]

Currently testing a dockerfile with the rocker install scripts (the devcontainer feature didn't do a good job setting up all the ENV variables for R). However, the container build takes a loong time now :(

[davidpomerenke]

Yeah ... did it use to be better with the previous setup?

That setup probably used a pre-built container, and then the devcontainer-features ran some minor additions on top of that basis; whereas now all the stuff might be run from scratch ...

[davidpomerenke]

I've setup everything using devcontainer-features again.

The only thing that does not work is installing packages like this:

"ghcr.io/rocker-org/devcontainer-features/r-packages:1": {
    "packages": [
        "easystats"
    ],
    "installSystemRequirements": true
},

This gives some (package-specific?) error. I'll make a separate issue for that.

Can you check whether the Devcontainer works for you, and whether you're missing anything? @kleinlennart @vogelino

[davidpomerenke]

Issue for the R packages problem: #9

[kleinlennart]

Closed with #19