Setting up your Development Environment on Windows

These instructions are primarily for development on Windows, but attempt to be as cross-platform as possible.

This looks like a lot of work but (1) I’m assuming you’re starting on a clean machine or VM, and (2) you do it only once! If you’re using a machine on which you’re already developing, you likely have a few of these already set up.

(XPlat) Visual Studio Code

We’ll try to use Visual Studio Code for the majority of our development work. This is a capable cross-platform editor with the ability to handle multiple languages and dialects, and has support for debugging, Docker, and Kubernetes as well.

You can install Visual Studio 2019 in addition to Visual Studio Code if you like.

I haven’t tested Rider, but I’ve heard good things about it, and you may want to install it and give it a whirl.

(Windows) Git for Windows

Install Git for Windows on your machine. We will make use of bash and other linux tools during development, so ensure you install the Linux tools in your PATH when installing Git for Windows. You can set the default editor to be Visual Studio Code if you don’t know how to exit vim! :)

(XPlat) PowerShell Core

Follow instructions to install PowerShell Core on your machine.

(Windows) Chocolatey

Follow these instructions on an Administrative instance of PowerShell you just installed to install Chocolatey on your machine. Ensure you have a working install.

(Windows) Make

We will make use of make during development, so you will need to install this on Windows.

Don’t worry, you won’t need to write any make scripts. You’ll need make to run the provided scripts, though!

Open a new command shell window after installing Chocolatey to run choco install make. This will install make on your windows environment.

(XPlat) DotNet Core

You’ll need an SDK install of .NET Core 3.1 or newer. For your own sanity, try to stick with the recommended version and not the bleeding-edge version.

(Windows/Mac) Docker Desktop

If you want to explore the possibilities of packaging your application in Docker Containers, or want to consider Kubernetes for deployment, install Docker Desktop. Ensure you have a working installation by following the instructions for windows or mac.

This will come with a version of Kubernetes that runs on your desktop as well, so ensure you enable it.

Azure Storage Emulator and Azure Storage Explorer

We’ll use the Azure Storage Emulator for a local version of Azure storage. You’ll find the installer and documentation.

Ensure you start up the Azure Storage Emulator before you run your application.

We’ll also use Azure Storage Explorer to inspect the contents of an Azure storage account. You’ll find the installer and documentation.

Setting up your Development Environment on Mac or Linux

Contributions for specific instructions for setup on Mac and Linux are welcome

The instructions listed for a Windows development environment attempt to be as cross-platform as possible.

Try to set up the analogous packages on your machine and reach out if you need help.