What Is GitHub? A Beginner’s Introduction to GitHub

Git is an Open Source Distributed Version Control System. Now that’s a lot of words to define Git. Let me break it down and explain the wording: Control System: This basically means that Git is a content tracker. So Git can be used to store content — it is mostly used to store code due to the other [ [ ...]

Understanding the Git in GitHub

1. Introducing GitHub GitHub creates an environment that allows you to store your code on a remote server, gives you the ability to share your code with other people, and makes it easy for more than one person to add, modify, or delete code to the same file and project, while keeping one source of [ [ ...]

Signing Up for GitHub.com

GitHub.com offers unlimited free public and private repositories for individuals. Free private accounts are limited to three collaborators. You can sign up for a paid account to have unlimited collaborators and some Pro features. Public means that anyone can see your code, clone your code, and therefore use your code. GitHub is a huge supporter [ [ ...]

Personalizing Your GitHub.com Account

As you become a more experienced coder, you may want to reference your GitHub. com profile on your resume and job applications. More and more companies care more about your portfolio than a list of degrees or awards. For example, GitHub doesn’t require you to provide information on your education as part of the hiring [ [ ...]

Discovering Helpful Resources

The GitHub.com help page (https://help.github.com) has an extensive list of documents for every feature on GitHub.com. From the top-right avatar menu, you can click the Help link. From there, clicking Contact a Human takes you to the GitHub contact page (https://github.com/contact) where you can find the following resources: » A FAQ » Links to the [ [ ...]

Exploring GitHub.com

The home page of GitHub.com, shown in Figure 2-1, is a great starting point for many tasks, including starting your own project, learning about a topic, or explor­ing existing repositories. The top menu bar, shown in Figure 2-2, is always available to you and is a direct link to the most important functions you need [ [ ...]

Understanding Your Profile on GitHub.com

Your profile is a public view of, essentially, your portfolio. To view your profile, click your avatar and then choose Your profile from the menu that appears. You can see my profile in Figure 2-5. The top menu bar of your profile offers quick links to your repositories, things you’ve starred, your followers, and anyone [ [ ...]

Getting to Know and Setting up GitHub Desktop

1. Getting to Know GitHub Desktop GitHub Desktop is a free, open source application that makes it easier for Mac and Windows users alike to manage repositories and GitHub connections on their local computer. The fact that Desktop is open source means that you can follow the development of new features, connect with the developers [ [ ...]

Introducing Atom

Atom is a free, open-source editor. Just like GitHub Desktop, Atom is built on Electron, making it work on Mac or Windows PC. Atom is extensible, meaning you can add your own features to it. You can take a look at what the Atom team at GitHub is working on by visiting the repository; https://github.com/atom/atom. [ [ ...]

Introducing GitHub Repositories: Setting Up a Repository

A GitHub repository is a folder with all the files needed for your project, including the files that track all the versions of your project so that you can revert back if you make a mistake. A repository on GitHub also tracks who can collabo­rate and how. To get a better understanding of what a [ [ ...]

Introducing GitHub Repositories: Exploring Your Repository

A repository has a lot going on, even when it’s as simple as the HelloWorld one that I created in the preceding section. The following sections walk you through an overview of everything on the repository. 1. Top information At the top of the repository is the username of the author and title of the [ [ ...]

Introducing GitHub Repositories: Modifying README.md

I highly recommend that every project, whether public or private, have a README.md file at the top level. This file is often the starting point for anyone who wants to contribute to the code. The README.md file will often have the following sections: » Project title and description » Prerequisites for getting the project running [ [ ...]

Introducing GitHub Repositories: Merging a Pull Request

After you have all your changes in a pull request (see the preceding section), you can merge those changes into the master branch by following these steps: On the main Code tab, click the View #1 button to get to your pull request. My pull request page, shown in Figure 3-11, has three different commits. [ [ ...]

Introducing GitHub Repositories: Using Issues and Project Boards

Issues on a GitHub repo are a great way to track the things you need to fix, add, or change. When you combine issues with project boards, you get insights into your project that would otherwise be hard to track. In this section, you create issues and project boards and change your README.md. 1. Creating [ [ ...]

Setting Up a GitHub Website Repo

1. Introducing GitHub Pages GitHub Pages is a fast and easy way to make a website that is hosted on GitHub. com. The code in your repo will be the code running the website. Even better is that it’s much easier to style your websites with Jekyll, a free, open-source site generator that takes Markdown [ [ ...]

Setting Up Your Local Environment of GitHub Pages

This section assumes you already set up GitHub Desktop and Atom. If you haven’t, Chapter 2 can help guide you through this process. In this section, you get your website working so that you can modify files on your local computer instead of on GitHub.com. Modifying files on your local computer can be useful if [ [ ...]

Finding Resources for GitHub Pages

Some amazing folks over at GitHub have dedicated all their time to supporting GitHub users in discovering and learning about all the features that GitHub offers. Beyond the static documentation, the GitHub Training Team offers Learning Labs. Learning Labs are a self-guided, automated tutorial that actually has you doing the actions on GitHub.com and not [ [ ...]

Jumping into an Existing GitHub Project for GitHub Pages

Whether you’re revisiting a project that you started yesterday, one you worked on last year, or finding a new project that you’ve never worked on, there are quick and easy ways to get oriented with a GitHub project. In this section, you see exam­ples of reorienting with the GitHub Pages website repo that we create [ [ ...]

Preparing Your Contribution with GitHub Pages

After you orient yourself with your project, you need to decide what you’re going to work on for your contribution. For the example in this book, we choose issue #2 in the To do column of the project board: Change the title and tagline. Other good candidates are any issues that were opened with the [ [ ...]

Building Your Personal Website with GitHub Pages

This section is following the example website repo that is created in Chapter 4 to show some basics on how to build a website. However, the tips shown in this sec­tion can be used for any website you build using GitHub Pages. 1. Modifying the title and tagline To modify the title and tagline of [ [ ...]