Reproducible Developer Environments
Getting a developer environment properly configured for your projects can be time-consuming and error-prone. Too often, the requirements are not clearly defined, are simply outdated, or make assumptions about the existing environment. Getting it slightly wrong can result in failures that are difficult to diagnose and could take days or weeks to discover. Working with multiple projects that have potentially conflicting requirements can make multi-tasking a chore. From getting the wrong version of GCC installed to requiring a specific version of an operating system, there are so many things that can stop a developer in their tracks.
This talk will describe the criteria we can use to determine the effectiveness of a solution to these problems, apply those to historical techniques, and will present a deeper look at two modern solutions, GitHub Codespaces and Microsoft Dev Box.
Michael Price
Michael Price (he/him) is an experienced software engineer, currently working as a Product Manager with the Microsoft C++ team. His experience working at major software companies for over 15 years informs his thinking about how to enable C++ developers around the world to achieve more. His current focus is on enhancing C++ tooling to take advantage of the PaaS (platform-as-a-service) and IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) offerings from organizations like GitHub and Microsoft Azure.
In his spare time, Michael enjoys playing recreational soccer and spending time with his wife, two sons, and several household pets. He particularly likes playing board/card games and video games with his children.