GitHub is one of the most popular platforms among developers all over the world. It has a wide variety of users ranging from beginner programmers to Multinational Companies like Google and Amazon.
In this article, we are going to be taking a deeper look at GitHub and its attributes.
Introduction to Git and GitHub
Git is a version control system technology used for managing source codes of various software.
Being a version control system, Git maintains a track of changes made to the project along with enabling its users to collaboratively develop the source code with high efficiency.
GitHub is a web-based graphical interface for Git. In other words, GitHub provides Internet hosting for software development using Git.
At the moment, GitHub is the largest source code host, having over 70 million developers and 200 million repositories.
Important Github terms
There are certain important terms particular to GitHub that one needs to know in order to use the platform. We will be discussing these terms in this section of the article.
One of the most common words you will come across while using Github is Repository. A repository is the storage place which will contain all your project's files and revision history. This is the place where you discuss and manage your project's work.
When you create a new repository, it comes with a default development branch. We call this branch the main. In the repository, you can also see the Issues and Pull Requests columns. The issues column lets you report bugs and security vulnerabilities, and request features; The Pull Requests column allows you to announce a change made by you in the branch.
After a pull request is approved, the commit will be pulled in from one branch to another and then, deployed on the live site. This is known as Merge.
Fork is a copy of another user's repository and Readme is a text file that contains information about other files in a repository.
Why should I use GitHub for my next project?
GitHub allows multiple developers to work on a single project at the same time. This helps in decreasing production time, while reducing the risk of duplicative work.
With GitHub, programmers can build code, record changes, and solve problems that might arise during the site development process simultaneously.
GitHub has a unique way for its users to collaborate. Its well organized and straightforward structure is even capable of supporting global open source projects like Python and VS Code. This unique design of collaboration can help produce a much higher level quality control than otherwise.
Benefits of using GitHub
Contributing to Open Source projects
To put it bluntly, all major open source projects are hosted on GitHub. Moreover, contributing to an open source is extremely efficient and straightforward on this platform. Its features help provide an in-depth documentation and makes it easier to get feedback.
If you wish to make changes to the source code, just fork the project, make your changes and send them a pull request using the GitHub web interface.
Exposure to your work
GitHub is one of the largest coding communities in the world.
If you wish to attract recruiters, GitHub is a great place to start. In today's times, GitHub is a popular place for companies to search for their new recruits. Having a good GitHub profile certainly adds to your chances.
Recording changes
When you have multiple people collaborating on a project, after a certain point, it is not possible to keep a well recorded track of changes made in the project. Questions like who changed what, when, and where those files were stored keeps on lingering.
However, this is not an issue on GitHub. It takes care of this problem by keeping track of all the changes that have been pushed to the repository. With this, you can have a version history of your code so that previous versions are not lost with every new iteration.
Markdown
Github provides support for the Markdown , which allows you to use a simple text editor to write formatted documents. With so many other programming languages to learn for setting up projects, it really is a big benefit to have your content inputted in a format without having to learn yet another system.
Backup storage
GitHub offers free and permanent storage of repositories. It is also completely reliable and can serve as a great backup place to store your work.
Hosting static websites
Another helpful feature that GitHub offers is the github pages, this allows you to host static websites. Again, It is a highly reliable and secure option.
GitHub is indeed an essential in today's programming world. It may take some time to get efficient at using it, but in the end, learning it will be totally worth your time and energy.