GitHub is a programming resource that is becoming more and more well-liked for code sharing. Many businesses and organisations use it as a social networking platform for programmers to streamline project management and teamwork. It is the most well-known source code host, with over 60 million new repositories created in 2020 and boasting over 56 million total developers, according to data gathered in October 2020.
Let’s examine a use case in order to understand GitHub’s relevance before delving deeper into what it is.
No matter how big or small a company is, problems and obstacles will always arise. The issues Decathlon is facing can best be summed up as:
How would the business prevent redundancies among such a sizable workforce and maintain workflow visibility?
How would the business find developers for such a wide range of locations?
Save the day with GitHub! Not only is GitHub a cheap resource, but it also has a fantastic open-source community. Because it is a cloud-based tool, the code is easily accessible throughout the client organisation as a whole, facilitating everyone’s contributions.
Global developer collaboration is made possible by GitHub. Potential developers can contribute and share their knowledge to help the entire world community thanks to open-source programmes like GitHub.
The component of Git that is most well-suited for solving Decathlon’s two issues is the version control system, or VCS. Let’s therefore deepen our understanding of GitHub by learning more about the Git version control system and understanding why it is such a game-changer.
A version control system: what is it?
The Git version control system, as its name suggests, is a system that keeps track of all the changes made to a file or set of data so that, in the event that one is required later, a particular version can be retrieved. The system ensures that everyone on the team is using the most recent version of the file and allows for concurrent work on the same project.
Before learning more about GitHub, it is important to understand what the ‘Git’ part refers to.
Git is used to track project team members’ progress over time and coordinate workflow between them. By keeping track of their project files, it also benefits non-technical users as well as programmers. Git enables collaboration between users without interfering with one another’s work.
Now that you are familiar with Git, you have the groundwork necessary to comprehend GitHub better.
Describe GitHub.
GitHub is a hosting service for Git repositories that offers a web-based graphical user interface. It is the biggest coding community on the planet. A project or piece of code that is uploaded to GitHub is given more exposure. Programmers can find source codes in a wide variety of languages and make and track changes using the command-line interface Git.
GitHub facilitates collaboration and enables each team member to work on a project from any location. Additionally, you have the option of reviewing earlier versions.
So now we are aware of what GitHub and Git are. It’s time to examine GitHub’s features in order to better comprehend the significance and applicability of the platform.
What Features Does GitHub Offer?
- Project Management Made Simple
Project managers and developers collaborate on projects on GitHub to plan, monitor, and update their work in order to keep projects transparent and on schedule.
- Increased Package Safety
Packages may be made public to the open-source community, private to the team, or both. You can use or reuse the packages by downloading them from GitHub.
- Managing Teams Effectively
Using GitHub, the team can stay organised and on the same page. The team can concentrate on the code with the help of moderating tools like Issue and Pull Request Locking.
- Enhancing Code Writing
Organizations use pull requests to review, create, and suggest new code. Before making any source code changes, team members can discuss any implementations and suggestions using these.
- Enhanced Code Security
GitHub uses specialised tools to find and examine code vulnerabilities that other tools frequently overlook. Worldwide development teams collaborate to secure the entire software supply chain.
- Simple Code Host
The documentation and all the code are in one location. On GitHub, there are millions of repositories, and each one has its own set of tools for hosting and disseminating code.
Let’s examine the competition now that we are more familiar with GitHub.
So, How Do You Begin Using GitHub?
With GitHub, getting things started is simple. Create an account on the GitHub website first by clicking on it. Then, especially if you intend to use your local computer, think about installing Git on your system. Next, open your terminal and tell Git who you are by adding your user name to each repository. the following command
—global user.name “your name here” in git configuration
Ensure that the parameter “your name here” contains your own name. Choose any name you want.
Next, tell Git your email address. The address should be the same as the one you used to sign up for GitHub.
user.email = git config —global “your [email protected]>”
Now that you’re prepared, use Git!
How Are GitHub and Git Used?
Here is a very general overview of the procedures you must follow in order to use GitHub and Git. On this page of opensource.com, you can find more information about the specific commands and syntax.
There are a lot of competitors and alternatives to GitHub on the market. The top ten rivals as of the end of 2020 are:
- Bitbucket
- Repositories for Google Cloud Sources
- Phabricator
- GitLab\sGogs
- Gitea\sSourceForge
- Apache AWS CodeCommit Launchpad for Allura