gitpod/codespaces support for contributions (especially docs)

[minrk]

Proposed change

Configuration for gitpod or GitHub codespaces to make it easier to set up a test environment for new contributors. I imagine this primarily for docs contributions, so whatever we use should be able to:

1. install jupyterhub
2. build the docs
3. preview the built docs
4. push commits (or even issue PRs, but push is most important)

The big risk I see for this is maintenance. It's very unlikely that regular contributors would use this, which puts it at significant risk of being out of date or stale, since I think such things are usually hard to test themselves. And a contributor tool especially for new contributors that goes stale and doesn't actually work seems worse than relying on local installation documentation. But the benefits of zero-install docs contributions where folks can actually see built docs seems significant.

Alternative options

Leave things as they are, rely on local installation.

Who would use this feature?

Mostly novice and first-time contributors.

[ghostdevv]

Hey, I'm happy to take another look at this PR if you're open to it! (Updated comment with some more helpful information!)

The big risk I see for this is maintenance. It's very unlikely that regular contributors would use this, which puts it at significant risk of being out of date or stale, since I think such things are usually hard to test themselves.

The options in the .gitpod.yml are stable and don't change often, the only surface I could see is if there were major changes to how you run the codebase. We're happy to help out here!

But the benefits of zero-install docs contributions where folks can actually see built docs seems significant.

It's certainly daunting as a new contributor figuring out how to get a project running locally, this is a big win here! I wrote some thoughts about this recently if you wanna read a bit more on CDEs.

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We also offer an open source plan to help maintainers with their work without charging them. You'd get at least 2500 credits (250 hours). You can also check our docs, join our community discord, or reach out to me directly if you have any questions.