Ship It — Deploy, Package, Sustain

The gap between "it works on my machine" and "someone else is using it" is where most side projects die. This series is four ways across that gap — a script becoming an API, a web app becoming a hardened container, a binary becoming a store listing — plus the meta-skill of sustaining the habit that produces them.

Who this is for

You write code that works locally and you've never deployed it, or you've deployed once by following a tutorial and couldn't repeat it from memory. Python assumed. No cloud, Docker or C++ background required — each part builds what it needs.

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The path

Part 1 · Script to API (~5 min, intermediate)

Deploying Scripts as an API in Azure

The smallest possible crossing. A local Python script becomes an HTTP endpoint someone else can call. Short and practical — this is the one to do first because it makes every later part feel smaller.

Part 2 · Containers (~11 min, intermediate)

Deploying Web Applications in Azure with Docker

A production-minded walkthrough, from Docker internals up to a hardened deploy. Images and layers, why your container is 900MB when it should be 60, and the difference between a container that runs and one you'd leave running.

Prerequisite: part 1 helps but isn't required.

Part 3 · Desktop and the store (~7 min, intermediate)

Building a Windows App and Publishing to the Store

A different distribution model entirely. C++ compilation from first principles, object files and linking, producing an .exe, then the packaging and submission path to the store. Included because understanding what a compiler actually emits makes the whole stack less mysterious.

Part 4 · Sustaining it (~30 min, intermediate)

Building a Learning System That Actually Sticks

The meta-part. Most self-study fails at retention, not effort — the architecture of a 26-week system built around spaced repetition, blank-page recall and deliberately scheduled revision. Shipping consistently is a systems problem too.

Read this one whenever. It doesn't depend on parts 1–3.

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How to read this series

Start at part 1 and move forward. Every post has prev/next navigation at the bottom, so you can walk the whole track without coming back here.

If you only have an hour: parts 1 and 2 get you from a local script to a containerised deploy, which covers most of what you'll ever need for web work.

What this series does not cover

• CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation — see the 6-month plan, module M08.
• Kubernetes and orchestration at scale — deliberately out of scope; containers first, orchestration much later.
• Monitoring, alerting and on-call practice — the observability material lives in the 6-month plan, module M09.

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