Docker container of a library (graph-tool) + VSCode extensions: GitHub Copilot, Jupyter Notebook, Python

Tutorial to running a Python library (here: graph-tool, which is not available on Windows) in VSCode using Docker containers with extensions: Jupyter Notebooks (inside VSCode) and Github Copilot for fast code completion.

This way, one can use the library on Windows in a container, and keep the benefits of using tools such as GitHub Copilot to develop quicker.

Quick setup using this repository:

To be added...

Step-by-step own setup:

Have the Docker Engine, VSCode, and the following VSCode extensions: Docker, Dev Containers + Python, Jupyter Notebook, GitHub Copilot installed.

1) Pull (download) the Docker image of the library of your choice (graph-tool)

Select the Docker image (in my case: tiagopeixoto/graph-tool) you want to use, and pull it down. Usually, the maintainer provides the image (sharing its name on the website), or for big enough projects somebody online already has created a Docker image.
You can either pull the image in the command line, like I did:

docker pull tiagopeixoto/graph-tool

Or you can open the Docker Engine, search the image and pull it down:

Now that you have a Docker image of e.g. the library you want to use, keep the Docker engine open.

VSCode container configurations

Now, we take these steps in VSCode to generate both the Dockerfile, and the devcontainer folder:

• Select a workspace, where you want to have your code (can already put the code in)
• Open your workspace in VSCode, make sure again you have the extensions installed, keep Docker running.
• Press F1 to open the command palette, type Docker: Add Docker Files to Workspace, select.
• Set the configurations (e.g. Python, the image, etc.)

VSCode will generate a Dockerfile and other stuff.

This is already enough to run the container, and to use the library in your repository

Adding more extensions

To add other extensions and not just Python, Jupyter Notebook and GitHub Copilot, extend the down below section in the devcontainer.json file in the .devcontainer folder:

        "vscode": {
            "extensions": [
            ...#your extensions
            ]
        }

such as this:

Docker image

Will be added.