RFD 1056: Develop in a dev container
Problem
Two dependencies do not build on Windows, and both are required. XLA publishes no Windows archive, so EXLA can never resolve there. The V-Sekai CockroachDB release does ship a Windows zip, and the database tests need a running node either way.
Work on Windows therefore either skips those parts or replaces them. This branch already did both, and neither workaround is the answer. See DETAILS.md for why.
Decision
Develop in a dev container. It runs Debian, thus EXLA builds and the Linux CockroachDB build runs.
This box’s own Quadlets run Linux, and RFD 1055 selects them first, so the container is the same system production uses. Torchx goes: EXLA is the only backend this project builds against, and a second one only existed to work around the host.
VSCodium carries no Dev Containers support. The Microsoft extension is proprietary, and Open VSX does not carry it. Enter the container by CLI instead, through podman exec or the devcontainer CLI, and not through editor integration. The editor still edits the source through the bind mount this RFD already sets.
See DETAILS.md for what the container carries, why it uses named volumes instead of bind mounts, and what it deliberately does not do.