Development // Tony Metzidis

Fully Remote Development with VS Code & Cloud9

I work from about 7 different machines, including 3 laptops, ipad, chromebook and a PC desktop. Usually this means keeping credentials, config, build dependencies and IDEs in sync across all 3–and the iPad & Chromebook just can’t run my dev environment

I considered a few options to enable seamless work across devices

option	pros	cons
Keep a “dev” docker image that contains everything.	fully-local dev	only works on Desktop OSs. Inconsistency if you forget to push the image
Sync script	fully-local dev	Inconsistency across devices. Script mayhem
Code remotely via a VM	Secure, consistent	Traditionally, text-only

Solution

Launch Cloud9 Environment on AWS
Install VS Code + SSH Remote Extension
Install tmux

With this setup, you get the highest-fidelity experience when you can (with VS code), plus an adequate experience on iPad & Chromebook (cloud9 web ide). With tmux you get seamless handoff across all devices.

Jan 4, 2020

3 min read

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