Github

Using Github

Github is the website used by millions of developers to store and manage their open source programming projects. Since you're reading this page, you've already found it. Github supports wikis like this, issue tracking, and project status boards. Make sure you have an account on Github, and let the project administrators know what it is. That way, they can add you as contributors to a project. Microsoft now manages github.com, and uses a common authentication scheme, so having one Microsoft account may already give you a Github account (and vice versa).

Github is based on a source code control tool called git that became the tool of choice for the developers of the Linux operating system. One of its key features is the distributed nature of the repositories. While github.com maintains a copy of these repositories, every developer gets their own, complete repository including all the history of changes, in their local copy (or copies) of the repository.

The git command line tool is incredibly powerful, and not surprisingly, incredibly complex. It was invented by software geeks for use by software geeks. Its complexity, however, can be a hindrance for newcomers. Many users just need the basics, and graphical user interfaces can make that much easier. The Github Desktop tool provides a straightforward interface to working with repositories, their branches, and commits (changes) to those branches. Here are some places to get more information about GitHub Desktop:

• The GitHub Desktop Product Help Page covers the basics of installing, logging in, cloning a repository, making a branch in the repository, and committing some changes to files in that branch.
• The Git and GitHub learning resources page has lots of links useful for beginners.
• When you want to edit this wiki page or the README file for one of the repositories, you need to know about the Markdown Language. It's a simple way of adding punctuation to plain text in order to add bullets, headings, font styles, etc. The wiki is a collection of Markdown pages that are simple to edit.

Many integrated development environments support git. These tools build support into their developer GUI's to ease many of the common git tasks. Microsoft Visual Studio supports Python and has a Visual Studio Extension for GitHub. Wing Python IDE Pro supports git but its free versions, Wing Personal and Wing 101, do not (see https://wingware.com/wingide/features/personal). Both PyCharm Professional Edition and its free Community Edition support git (see https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/features/editions_comparison_matrix.html)

You can find documentation about git the command line tool at https://git-scm.com/doc. There are many tutorials on how to get started with git. Add your favorites here:

• An introductory video on how to install and start using the command line.