To get the most out of this book

In order to write and test the code in this book, you will need a Linux, macOS, or Windows machine with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). You will need the AWS CLI, Python, and obviously an AWS account. You can use any IDE or code editor you prefer. To write the code for this book, I used JetBrain’s PyCharm and Visual Studio Code, since they have nice plugins for CloudFormation.

For the CDK and SAM, you will additionally need Docker, Homebrew, and Node Package Manager (NPM).

All code examples were written on macOS, but they can easily run on a Linux system or WSL.

Software/hardware covered in the book	Operating system requirements
AWS CLI 1.18 or later	macOS or Linux
Python 3.6 or later	Windows, macOS, or Linux
Homebrew 2.2 or later	Windows, macOS, or Linux
Docker 19.03.5 or later	Windows, macOS, or Linux

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

Keep in mind that using CloudFormation on AWS is free but you will need to pay for the resources it creates. In this book, I tried to use the smallest amount of resources possible (such as t2.micro instances), but always keep an eye on your AWS account and don’t forget to delete the stack and other resources once you are done practicing.