Leveraging Docker to Bootstrap Learning

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When teaching customers how to use your platform, system setup can take longer than the actual coding exercises. Specific language versions, dependency libraries and the quirkiness of different operating systems can consume precious time during workshops or while viewing online tutorials - even before the developer gets to the meat of the topic. Additionally, your specific manifest of libraries and language versions may conflict with a developer’s environment, requiring the developer to make irreversible changes to the system environment or preventing them from using your sample code all together. With Docker, it¹s possible to create a container that delivers exactly what the developer needs to start working with your code immediately. Boot2Docker makes setup on Windows and Macintosh simple, and on Linux the setup is even more straightforward. This simple use case can improve the first time developer experience for your platform and increase engagement with your developer community. This approach has the added benefit of avoiding impact on your developers¹ existing system and coding environment. Administrative privileges aren¹t required, and a Docker container acts as a sandbox to protect the main system from any ill effects.

Speaker Bio

Kirsten Hunter is an unapologetic hacker and passionate advocate for the development community. Her technical interests range from graph databases to cloud services, and her experience supporting and evangelizing REST APIs has given her a unique perspective on developer success. In her copious free time she’s a gamer, fantasy reader, and all around rabble-rouser. Code samples, recipes, and philosophical musings can be found at http://www.princesspolymath.com/