More on in the next week or so when I have time to do a write-up, but the DIT4C project has generated a number of Docker containers for scientific tools which are designed to be generally usable without DIT4C.
We now have Docker containers for: * iPython (dit4c/dit4c-container-ipython) * RStudio (dit4c/dit4c-container-rstudio) * IJulia (dit4c/dit4c-container-ijulia) * Octave (dit4c/dit4c-container-octave) All of these images are freely available on Docker Hub. Containers can either be run on the DIT4C platform or stand-alone. They simply expose port 80 to provide web-based terminal and file management access, in addition the specific tool. DIT4C provides an authorization and compute node management layer over the top, but I've tried to avoid coupling DIT4C containers to the platform. For those interested: ``` docker run -t --name dit4c-ipython -P dit4c/dit4c-container-ipython docker port dit4c-ipython 80 ``` You need TTY availability (-t) for the web-based shell terminal. We've run a some initial bootcamps and training sessions with iPython & RStudio containers using the DIT4C platform, with tentatively positive results. More on that later. In relation to trading broken installs for WiFi problems, this is generally true. The effects of WiFi drop-outs on the iPython image prompted me to fork TTY.js and create a more drop-out resistant version (tty-lean.js) for our containers. One thing is for sure - you wouldn't use DIT4C for training if you weren't confident you could make an Internet connection available to all attendees for the length of the event. Damien Irving ran the iPython sessions, so he may have more to say about this. All the Dockerfiles that generate these containers are available on GitHub, and the images are designed for extension. (ie. You can build new images so your teaching materials and extra packages come pre-installed.) The intention of the DIT4C project is to provide all outputs under MIT or similar licences. I'll double check that I've explicitly licenced the repos when I'm back in the office. Like I said, more on this later. Cheers, Tim Dettrick ________________________________________ From: Discuss [discuss-boun...@lists.software-carpentry.org] on behalf of W. Trevor King [wk...@tremily.us] Sent: Sunday, 26 October 2014 12:19 PM To: Dirk Eddelbuettel Cc: Software Carpentry Discussion Subject: Re: [Discuss] tmpnb: temporary IPython Notebook servers using Docker containers On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 07:58:06PM -0500, Dirk Eddelbuettel wrote: > i) A few months ago I brought up Docker. And to put it somewhat > bluntly, I was told to get lost. We have a code of conduct so > the words were nice but I think I express the sentiment fairly > :) That said, some other folks are also working on Docker > containers in the space so we may here some more. That's probably this thread [1]. Related projects mentioned were: * Preston Holmes' JiffyLab [2,3,4,5]. * Tim Dettrick's dit4c [6,7]. As I recall, most of the concerns were: * How legal is it to publish/distribute a Docker image containing compiled versions of copyleft software without also mirroring the associated source code? * Can students who sometimes struggle with installing Git successfully install Docker? My impression was that, aside from these issues (which I still think are valid), the reception on discuss@ was fairly positive. Obviously, neither issue is insurmountable: * There's a lot of compiled GPL software on the Docker Hub without any lawsuits I've heard about. * If you host the Docker containers yourself with something like JiffyLab or tmpnb, you sidestep broken student installs, but become more susceptible to broken/overloaded wifi networks. I think instructors are free to chose whatever delivery mechanism they feel best fits their target audience and location. Cheers, Trevor [1]: http://lists.software-carpentry.org/pipermail/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org/2014-July/001867.html [2]: http://lists.software-carpentry.org/pipermail/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org/2014-July/001869.html [3]: http://lists.software-carpentry.org/pipermail/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org/2013-June/000668.html [4]: http://ptone.com/dablog/2013/06/introducing-jiffylab/ [5]: https://github.com/ptone/jiffylab [6]: http://lists.software-carpentry.org/pipermail/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org/2014-July/001871.html [7]: https://github.com/dit4c/ -- This email may be signed or encrypted with GnuPG (http://www.gnupg.org). For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.software-carpentry.org http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org
