GitHub - what is it? This resource is a web-based version control and collaboration platform for software developers. Delivered through a business model with software as a service was launched in 2008. The resource is based on Git, a source code management system created by Linus Torvalds to accelerate software development.
GitHub is currently the most popular open source code hosting service among developers and programmers.
GitHub - what is it?
Git is used to store project source code and track the complete history of all code changes. This allows developers to collaborate more effectively in the project, providing tools for managing possible conflicting changes from several developers. Working with GitHub allows you to adapt and improve software from your public repositories for free, but charges a fee for private repositories, offering various tariff plans. Each public or private repository contains all the project files, as well as the change history of each file. Repositories can have several employees and can be both public and private.
How to work in github?
The platform facilitates social coding by providing a web interface for the Git code repository and management tools for collaboration. This project can be considered as a serious social network resource for software creators.
How to use github? Participants can do programming together, evaluate each other's work, receive updates for specific projects, and communicate publicly or privately.
Users can add other participants to their project for collaboration.
Terminology
Three important terms used by developers in the GitHub.com environment are fork, pull request, and merge.
Fork is a repository that has been copied from one member’s account to another. This tool allows the developer to make changes without affecting the source code.
If the programmer would like to share the changes, he can send the transfer request to the owner of the original repository using the pull request command. If, after viewing the changes, the owner agrees with them, he accepts them and can combine them with the original repository. By default, data is saved and alternated in the main project or merged into a common file using the merge tool.
Since GitHub is intuitive and easy to use, and its version control tools are useful for collaboration, the resource has become popular with specialists of various orientations, including non-programmers. In particular, they began to use it to work on documents and multimedia developments. For example, documentation projects, training resources, and other types of work in which users can interact online and work together. GitLab is an open source alternative to GitHub.com.
Products & Features
In addition to the well-known GitHub.com product, SaaS, the parent company, offers a local version. GitHub Enterprise supports integrated development environments, an integrated system of tools and many third-party applications and services. The resource offers enhanced security and verification capabilities.
Other products and application features include:
Gist - Allows GitHub programmers to share snippets of code or other notes.
Flow is an easy industry workflow for regularly updated deployments.
Pages - are static web pages for hosting a project and retrieving information directly from the GitHub repository of an individual or organization.
Desktop - allows you to access GitHub from Windows or Mac desktop computers.
Student Developer Pack - a free offer of developer tools, which is limited by the number of participants. Includes cloud resources, software, support and access to the resource.
Social coding as the basis of the project
GitHub social coding - what is it? This is an approach to software development that emphasizes formal and informal collaboration between a team of software authors.
Although the term is often associated with social coding sites such as GitHub, BitBucket, CodePlex, and Google Code, it can be used to describe any development environment that involves discussion and sharing.
Repository
In information technology, the repository is the central place where data aggregation is stored and maintained in an organized manner, usually in computer storage.
Depending on how this term is used, the repository may be accessible to users or it may be the place from which specific databases, files or documents are obtained for further movement or distribution on the network. A repository may simply be an aggregation of data to some accessible storage location and may imply some ability to selectively retrieve information.
Social networking
Social networks as a general principle of github - what is it? It is the practice of expanding the number of business and social contacts by establishing connections between people, often through social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.
Based on the concept of six handshakes (the idea that any two people on the planet can communicate through a chain of no more than five intermediaries), social networks create online communities that help users make contacts.