Reapply "Began preparing for conda deployment"

This reverts commit 3bbef9ac3e.

.devcontainer/Dockerfile

@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+FROM mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/miniconda:1-3
+
+# Copy environment.yml (if found) to a temp location so we update the environment. Also
+# copy "noop.txt" so the COPY instruction does not fail if no environment.yml exists.
+COPY environment.yml* .devcontainer/noop.txt /tmp/conda-tmp/
+RUN if [ -f "/tmp/conda-tmp/environment.yml" ]; then umask 0002 && /opt/conda/bin/conda env update -n base -f /tmp/conda-tmp/environment.yml; fi \
+    && rm -rf /tmp/conda-tmp
+
+# [Optional] Uncomment to install a different version of Python than the default
+# RUN conda install -y python=3.6 \
+#     && pip install --no-cache-dir pipx \
+#     && pipx reinstall-all
+
+# [Optional] Uncomment this section to install additional OS packages.
+# RUN apt-get update && export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
+#     && apt-get -y install --no-install-recommends <your-package-list-here>

.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 // For format details, see https://aka.ms/devcontainer.json. For config options, see the
-// README at: https://github.com/devcontainers/templates/tree/main/src/python
+// README at: https://github.com/devcontainers/templates/tree/main/src/miniconda
 {
-	"name": "Python 3",
-	// Or use a Dockerfile or Docker Compose file. More info: https://containers.dev/guide/dockerfile
-	"image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/python:1-3.12-bullseye",
+	"name": "Miniconda (Python 3)",
+	"build": { 
+		"context": "..",
+		"dockerfile": "Dockerfile"
+	},
 
 	// Features to add to the dev container. More info: https://containers.dev/features.
 	// "features": {},
@@ -12,18 +14,18 @@
 	// "forwardPorts": [],
 
 	// Use 'postCreateCommand' to run commands after the container is created.
-	"postCreateCommand": "pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt",
+	// "postCreateCommand": "python --version",
+
+	// Configure tool-specific properties.
 	"customizations": {
 		"vscode": {
 			"extensions": [
-				"mechatroner.rainbow-csv"
+				"mechatroner.rainbow-csv",
+				"piotrpalarz.vscode-gitignore-generator"
 			]
 		}
 	}
 
-	// Configure tool-specific properties.
-	// "customizations": {},
-
 	// Uncomment to connect as root instead. More info: https://aka.ms/dev-containers-non-root.
 	// "remoteUser": "root"
 }

.devcontainer/noop.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+This file is copied into the container along with environment.yml* from the
+parent folder. This is done to prevent the Dockerfile COPY instruction from 
+failing if no environment.yml is found.