Many years ago, when I first discovered Docker, I thought it a great way to test new software in a fairly clear (and dare I say it) contained environment.
Later I used the same techniques to ease development on retro platforms, whether coding in BASIC, assembly, or C. Yes! Even C! I took the existing small C compilers and packaged them so that the inner loop of development involves a single command.
using the C environment, I was able to build some simple cross-platform projects which compiled identical source files into platform-specific binaries. In this case, a fixed point maths library and mandelbrot generator. Here is one such example.
And some variations
Currently, these containers only work under Linux-oriented systems, because of the methods required to access the host video display from the container.
Sinclair machines: ZX81 and ZX Spectrum ZXDocker
Dragon 32 DragonDocker
Marquis de Geek