Add VSCode development instructions?

[paleolimbot]

Expected behavior

I'd like to develop Apache Sedona from VSCode and it's a generally popular IDE that others might want to use too!

Actual behavior

The developer guide ( https://sedona.apache.org/latest/community/develop/ ) only gives instructions for IntelliJ.

Steps to reproduce the problem

The steps I took initially to set up my environment were:

• Install Java 8, Spark 3.3.0, and Scala 2.12.0 (i.e., the default versions in the Maven profile because not all VSCode extensions know about profiles, although some of them do). I'm not great at Java/Spark/Scala and I don't know if it's strictly required to have all of these installed via some system mechanism.
• Install the Red Hat Java extension, the Maven extension, and the Metals extension (for Scala)

This gets me some but not all VSCode features. The ones that work are:

• Run maven commands via the command palette (and maven commands in the terminal)
• Autocomplete when editing Java and Scala files
• The ability to run tests via Maven
• The ability to run Java tests via the Tests panel (Scala tests aren't discovered here, possibly because the version of Scala in the default profile is too old for the Metals extension, or maybe some other reason).

Things that don't work are:

• There's two files that complain about a missing package ( The import org.apache.sedona.sql.utils cannot be resolvedJava(268435846), The import org.apache.sedona.spark cannot be resolvedJava(268435846)). I'm wondering if this is a "default spark version is too old" issue.

I haven't tried the Java or Scala debuggers yet.

Settings

I have a devcontainer file that may or may not be helpful to come up with a recipe for setting up VSCode...I think it could probably use some refinement (e.g., I probably installed some extension after starting up the container).

// For format details, see https://aka.ms/devcontainer.json. For config options, see the
// README at: https://github.com/devcontainers/templates/tree/main/src/ubuntu
{
	"name": "Ubuntu",
	// Or use a Dockerfile or Docker Compose file. More info: https://containers.dev/guide/dockerfile
	"image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:noble",
	"features": {
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/java:1": {
			"installMaven": true,
			"version": "8",
			"jdkDistro": "tem",
			"gradleVersion": "latest",
			"mavenVersion": "latest",
			"antVersion": "latest",
			"groovyVersion": "latest"
		},
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers-extra/features/scala-sdkman:2": {
			"version": "2.12.15",
			"jdkVersion": "8",
			"jdkDistro": "tem"
		},
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers-extra/features/spark-sdkman:2": {
			"version": "3.3.0",
			"jdkVersion": "8",
			"jdkDistro": "tem"
		},
                // Lets the container run docker commands, although this doesn't actually work on MacOS
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-outside-of-docker:1": {}
	},
	"customizations": {
		"vscode": {
			"extensions": [
				"scalametals.metals"
			]
		}
	}

	// Features to add to the dev container. More info: https://containers.dev/features.
	// "features": {},

	// Use 'forwardPorts' to make a list of ports inside the container available locally.
	// "forwardPorts": [],

	// Use 'postCreateCommand' to run commands after the container is created.
	// "postCreateCommand": "uname -a",

	// Configure tool-specific properties.
	// "customizations": {},

	// Uncomment to connect as root instead. More info: https://aka.ms/dev-containers-non-root.
	// "remoteUser": "root"
}

[github-actions]

Thank you for your interest in Apache Sedona! We appreciate you opening your first issue. Contributions like yours help make Apache Sedona better.

[james-willis]

I don't know if it's strictly required to have all of these installed via some system mechanism.

Just Java then set $JAVA_HOME