GitHub is a web server that provides version control for software and code that is being developed. It makes it easy to share code with people around the world. Most, if not all, of the code you write as part of this group will be maintained on GitHub so learning git will be an important in your development. You will use git in the terminal to interact with GitHub one you are setup.
To make a GitHub account to to GitHub and click sign up for GitHub, create your user name and password and your all set. Once you have logged into GitHub create a new repository by clicking on the plus sign on the top right of the window and clicking on 'Now repository' from the drop-down menu. You now need to give the repository a name, you can give it any name you like but I would recommend something related to the exercise you've been given by Dr. Hart. You should also give it a description, again whatever you like but it should reflect what the code you are going to write will do. Ensure that the Public option is checked and check the box next to `Initialize this repository with a README'.
Before you click 'Create repository' you should also select the 'Python' option from the 'Add .gitignore' drop-down menu and select a license (I recommend the MIT license for most purposes) from the 'Add a license' drop-down menu. The .gitignore file tells git which files to automatically ignore when adding files from your local machine to the GitHub repository. The license lets other people know how they are allowed to use your code.
Once you've entered values into all the fields you can push `Create repository'. This repository is where you will store all the code you create for the exercise you have been assigned.
GitHub not only hosts your code but it will allow you to maintain multiple versions of your code at the same time. This is extremely useful when trying to maintain a working and stable code system. For example lets say you, or someone you collaborate with, are working on adding new functionality to a code you wrote but accidently introduced a bug into the code. If you push, git's way of updating the repository in the server, to the live code copy then anyone who tries to use the code will experience the bug. That is why it is always a good idea to create a development branch for your codes and only push changes to that version. Later when you are sure the code works (via unit testing and continuous integration) you can use what's called a pull request to merge the changes into your main repository.
To help you get into the habit of working on a development branch
let's create one for your new repository. On the repository home page
you should see a button labeled Branch: master. Click on it and in
the text field type the word 'dev'. You should then see new box show
up saying Create branch dev. Click on it. You have now created a
development branch to work in.
We will now copy this repository to your local machine so you can add
to it. Open your terminal, or command
prompt/Cygwin for windows, and use the cd
command to move to a place on your system that you want to store your
code (I would recommend making a separate directory for all your codes
called codes).
Once you are in the desired location click the green 'Clone or download' button and copy the address it shows you. Then in the terminal type:
git clone (past what you copied from GitHub here)
this will clone the repository to your local machine. Now use:
cd git_repo
to navigate into the newly created folder. We want to make sure the branch we are working on is the dev branch. To see which branch you are on use:
git branch
To switch to the dev branch use:
git checkout dev
We are now working on the dev branch and anything we commit will be pushed to dev instead of master creating a stable code base.
You are now ready to return to the remainder of the walkthrogh found here.