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Jozo
Jozo

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Explain Like I'm Five: Can junior developer make use of docker in any way

Hey,

I've been reading about docker a lot and can't quite figure out if it is to any use for me, I'm a front end developer looking to transfer to the backend so it'd be good to know docker but does it have any uses for a front end developer?

Top comments (3)

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Saurabh Sharma • Edited

I personally never used docker for frontend (I have pretty limited experience).

As @dan_abramov says in things I don't know

I have no idea about how to use Docker or Kubernetes. (Are those related?) I have a vague idea that they let me spin up a separate VM in a predictable way. Sounds cool but I haven’t tried it.

So it seems like you don't need to know docker for working in frontend.

In backend it is somewhat expected to have some experience with docker and kubernetes.

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Thomas H Jones II • Edited

Containers are what you make of them. At the very least, they can be useful for doing code-testing (regardless of where that code is going to run). Basically:

  1. Spin up a testing-harness container
  2. Make your code visible/testable to the container
  3. Invoke testing-harness against the container

E.g., if I have code where I would normally just say/pray "this works on <DISTRO_A> and should be portable to <DISTRO_B>", I can spin up a <DISTRO_B>-flavored container and run it in that context without having to stand up a whole VM to do so.

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Corey Alexander

I wouldn't worry about Docker (yet) until it solves a problem for you!

As others have mentioned Docker allows you to run your app in a 'container' that is segregated from the rest of the processes running on your computer.

In some cases Docker is used as an alternative to setting up your development environment with all the tools needed to develop an app. You just run the app in Docker and all your dependencies are within this single container.

I use Docker to help manage the Deployments of some of my side projects. This really starts getting into more of the Devops/SRE side of things. If that is stuff you are interested in I think learning about Docker and containers is a great idea!

But if you are wanting to focus more on application development, I wouldn't worry to much about Docker, until you need something to help make it easier to run or deploy your apps!