Github

Jan 15 2017
Epiphany
github

Find something or someone amazing by browsing the largest code repository on the web

github.com/blog

The Git Promise

I believe anyone that puts effort in programming will benefit greatly from understanding git and github, no mater how small their project it.

Git at its core tracks and saves changes to files. When your program starts breaking, you have a convenient save point to go back to. Some other things Git is capable of:

  • Multiple people can contribute to the git project and git ensures that they don’t ruin each other’s work.
  • The branching feature allows you to try drastic changes without messing with the master/main version. If it works you can then add it to the program but if not, just leave it hanging and continue as if you never did it.
  • Save changes it only needs to so projects don’t balloon in size after every change.
  • Works without the need of an internet connect, unlike some other version control systems (coughwhydouniversitiesteachSVNcough)

The Github hub

Git is not necessary to learn because Github has their own desktop workflow program that does the work for you. For those who perfer the terminal life git -> github commands are quite intuitive and sufficiently verbose.

Each repository in Github provides a breakdown of the programming languages used, and the syntax highlighting for different languages is really nice. Going back in history to find out what changed and who changed it is also very easy with the “Blame” button.

By hovering over the branches you can view the commit comment

Even something as simple as a shopping list can be saved as a “gist”, a snippet of code that has most of the features in a regular repository minus the extra care in managing one.

Github also takes good care of their users. Not only can you have your 6 best repositories show up front and center, you can put yourself up as available for hire. Maybe someone will find your programming hobby on Github and help you further it.

The overview page highlights your contributions and activity level

Github also has a blog! You have the standard articles of celebrating new features, charity events, and reminding everyone that security and privacy is their utmost concern. But you can also find articles about something mundane they do like dodgeball tournaments or some interesting deployment strategies they use to deliver the strong platform backend for so many programmers.

Bitbucket

There is another website that allows you to host your git projects for everyone to interact with, and that is bitbucket. The best part of Bitbucket is the ability to create private repositories for free, and that also hurts it just a bit (no pun intended). Because Github encourages community interaction with quick searching and a general “Explore” button if you don’t even know what you want to know. Bitbucket is marketed towards companies with the features, server, and pricing features right up at header. Searching isn’t on the main page and looking for other repositories is hard without previous information. Github just has many more repositories to show off and many of the largest projects live on Github. If you really need that extra level of private team repositories, then Bitbucket has that option for you. It isn’t trying to outcompete Github in the personal open source project department, but for me and many other coders the Github model is the best way to start.

Github is friendly to hobbyist programmers but also hints at professional solutions