If you are new and do not know about GitHub, then this guide belongs to introduction to GitHub for beginners.
GitHub is a web-based platform that helps team members to collaborate with others on projects. It basically hosts the source code of your project in various languages. It is a key element for the individual developers and teams to manage, track, as well as control changes to their code.
In this blog, you will get an Introduction to GitHub for beginners in 2021. I will take you through the features and advantages of GitHub.
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What is a VCS (Version Control System)?
Version Control is a software management system that allows the developers to work together and track all the changes related to the software project. It becomes more essential when the software project grows.
When you have multiple developers are working on the same project as well as on the same file. It will create problems when they merge the files back together. The reason behind this, it is unknown which version of the file is the correct one. So the concept of the Version Control System (VCS) is to reduce the complexity of developers and help to make the solutions relatively painless.
A VCS manages all the changes regarding projects like documents, computer programs, large websites, collection of information, and many more. The changes can be anything; it may be the addition of new files, modification of existing files, or deletion of a file. We can assume a version control system as a kind of database.
It helps the developers to take screenshots of the complete projects when needed. Along with this, Version Control allows you to safely work with the help of branching and merging. The developer copies the part of the source code to make safe changes without affecting the rest of the project. After the changes, if the code is working properly then merge the code back into the main source code to make it official.
Introduction to GitHub for beginners
Github is an online platform that offers a cloud-based Git repository hosting service. Essentially, it provides an easier way for both local and distributed teams to track the changes made by developers and collaborations. It is a user-friendly interface; so it can be used and take advantage of by anyone. If you are using Git, so you need to have more technical knowledge and use of the command lines.
Github is an American Company that was launched in April 2008 by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Warnstrath, P.J. Hyett, and Scott Chacon. It hosts the source code in the various programming languages as well as tracks all the changes made by developers.
Github allows the developers to synchronize the source code or project store locally into the web. Additionally, it can be used to browse other people’s repositories and download the documents of the projects seamlessly. It provides backups of what you have done and allowing you to share with others. The developers can create a public and private repository.
By using GitHub, you can get the best features like bug tracking, feature requests, task management, and repository hosting for every software project.
Important components of GitHub are:-
- Repositories
- Branches
- Commits
- Pull Requests
- Git
How GitHub Works?
GitHub offers many features such as forking, pull request, merging, and so on. Forking creates copy for your project where you can experiment freely without affecting the original project. After the changes, you have made in the code and you are happy with this. Then you can send the pull request to the project owner to review the changes. Moreover, you can also ask for any follow-up questions. If the project owners love your changes, they will merge your pull request. Then it will apply to the changes from your forked project to the original one.
GitHub’s Features
- Easy Project Management
GitHub is an online Git repository hosting service. It is a place where the developers and project managers can work together. They can monitor and update their work so the projects are transparent and stay on schedule.
- Increased Safety With packages
You can publish the packages privately, within the group or team, and publicly to the open-source community. It can be used or reused by developers to download the packages from GitHub.
- Effective Team Management
GitHub is an efficient tool that allows the team members to work together in an organized manner. Various tools like Issue and Pull Request Locking help the team members to focus on the code.
- Improved Code Writing
GitHub helps organizations review, develop, and propose new code through the Pull Request tool. Along with this, it allows the team members to discuss implementations and proposals before changing any source code.
- Increased Code Safety
You can identify and analyze the complexity of the code by uses the dedicated tools of GitHub. The development Team can work everywhere together to coordinate and secure the software supply chain from start to finish.
- Easy Code Hosting
The most important benefit of GitHub is you will get all the code and documentation in one place. Here you will get millions of repositories on GitHub. Therefore, each repository allows you to host and release code with the available own tools.
Advantage of GitHub
Git and Hub are the 2 essential elements of GitHub. Git indicates the version control system that allows the developers to track all the constant changes. Hub is a community where every individual or team can participate. It is all about collaborating with others to review, improve, and create new ideas from the uploaded code. Here are the key benefits of GitHub:-
- Easily contribute an open-source project through GitHub.
- It becomes easier to create excellent documentation with the available section and guides.
- It is one of the best Git repository hosting tools where recruiters can showcase their skills.
- Completely free.
- Provide a backup service for every software development project.
- Allow to develop and implement a management strategy without stepping on each other’s toes.
How to use GitHub?
Here are steps that will guide you on how to use GitHub for your projects:-
- Go to the link: https://github.com. Sign up for GitHub to create an account.
- Click on “Start a new project” to create a repository where you can store your code safely.
- Install and set up Git.
- Clone the remote directory.
- Build a file to make changes
- Add changes to the staging area.
- Commit changes.
- Push changes to remote.
GitHub’s Competitors
- Bitbucket
- Google Cloud Source Repositories
- Phabricator
- GitLab
- Gogs
- Gitea
- SourceForge
- Apache Allura
- launchpad
- AWS Code Commit
Conclusion
We hope this article “Introduction to GitHub for beginners in 2021” has helped you to understand the better relevance of GitHub. You learned the basics of VCS (Version Control System), features, advantages, and working process of GitHub. It is the best web-based tool that has the potential to make you stand out from the other web developers. Moreover, you can host the interest and biggest projects on GitHub today. So, I recommend you explore your open-source projects on GitHub and start contributing to your favorite ones.
