M348 Environment in Github Codespaces Demo

Demo of running an OU maintained Docker container as the computational environment (requires GitHub account).

To run:

• (clone this repository)
• from the repository Code / Codespaces menu, launch a new Codespace with a VS Code user interface; if you have a stopped environment, then you can start it again, and seleect "Open in browser" to launch the VS Code interface.
• when the Codespace has loaded, from the VS Code terminal, run the command: start.sh; when prompted, click to "Open in browser" to launch the Jupyter notebook server.

Use the password M348-23J to access the environment.

You can also launch the browser from the Ports tab: in the row that maps port 8888, hover you mouse ober the forwarded addresses item, and click the globe icon to launch the window.

You can optionally run the notebooks in the VS Code interface.

End-User Rationale

The demo is interesting for several reasons:

• a custom container can be provided that defines a complex computational environment for use in the Codespace. In the current example, the container is a container used in the Open University module M348. This environment includes:

  • a classic Jupyter notebook server, customised using off-the-shel extensions;
  • an R environment with required packages pre-installed;
  • we can deliver a complex computational environment to students that we can update as required by updating the original Docker image

• Codespaces provide a generous amount of free hosted compute hours per month, meaning an install free user experience;

  • students can use the Codespaces environment for free without any hosting burden on, or costs to, the OU

• the editing environment is separate from the containerised computational environment. Codespaces can be used to provide install free, customisable, browser based VS Code and nbclassic Jupyter notebook environments:

  • the VS Code editor can be customised by installing additional extensions via the devcontainer.json file;
  • we can separate concerns of delivering a customised computational environment (via the Docker image) and a customised user editing environment (via .devcontainer config files in the repo)

• file edits can be persisted in a Github repository using the VS Code git extension. (Modified files are persisted in the container and can also be published to a new branch);

  • provides a natural rationale for getting students into the habit of using version control / git
  • NOTE THAT THE REPOSITORY IS PUBLIC: I'M NOT SURE IF YOU CAN WORK WITH PRIVATE REPOS FOR FREE IN DEVSPACES. IF YOU CAN, YOU WILL NEED TO CREATE A PRIVATE REPO AND COPY THE .devcontainer/devcontainer.json FILE FROM THIS REPO INTO IT.