On Thu, 22 Apr 2021 at 09:56, William Witteman via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

I have some existing projects to contribute to that use NodeJS and Docker, and I am finding that getting set up to work on them is extremely daunting.

I have never really used Docker. I have never really used NodeJS/npm/etc.

I do know Javascript, but I don't build projects like this - it reminds me of Ruby-on-Rails, which I found to be a huge snarl of complexity.

I know that the initial development was done on Macs, but in theory at least, I should be able to set up the Docker container and use that to get me into an equivalent development environment, but I don't really know how.

Does anyone have a Debian-flavoured tutorial for setting up Docker/NodeJS so that I can build and run someone else's code?

Hi William. Another option to consider is VirtualBox (or something like it). I suppose this depends on your familiarity with VB: I'm very familiar with it, so spinning up a new machine in VB is quite straightforward for me. I'm not claiming VB is better (it definitely uses more resources), just that you could find it easier if you're comfortable with it. I also found Docker a struggle to get started with, and throwing a new language on top of that makes it really daunting. Best of luck. -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com

On 22/04/2021 09:55, William Witteman via talk wrote:

I have some existing projects to contribute to that use NodeJS and Docker, and I am finding that getting set up to work on them is extremely daunting.

I have never really used Docker.  I have never really used NodeJS/npm/etc.

I do know Javascript, but I don't build projects like this - it reminds me of Ruby-on-Rails, which I found to be a huge snarl of complexity.

I know that the initial development was done on Macs, but in theory at least, I should be able to set up the Docker container and use that to get me into an equivalent development environment, but I don't really know how.

Does anyone have a Debian-flavoured tutorial for setting up Docker/NodeJS so that I can build and run someone else's code?

A colleague of mine at DigitalOcean wrote this tutorial (as part of a larger series on running containerized Node applications on Kubernetes): https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-build-a-node-js-appl... While it is Ubuntu 18.04 focused, the principles are the same. To get Node & Docker working on Debian, these ought to help: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-node-js-on-d... https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-use-dock... Feel free to ask any follow ups here if you follow along with those, or email me directly if you run into any issues. Cheers, Jamon