Rudimentary Introduction to Github

Github is a website where code is hosted. Github is a place where people can gather and develop code together. Github is works similarly to Google Docs, in that you can upload things online for people to see and for people to work on. Github is also a fantastic resource where people host their projects for the world to see.

Git is a version control system designed to keep track changes made in your code or project. Do you need to know Git to use Github? No. Despite Git being integral to Github, learning Git isn’t required to use Github. I highly recommend Git; especially if you plan to take software development seriously.

Repositories

You upload stuff to Github to a Repository. A repository in Github is a place where files are uploaded to and any changes to made to it are tracked. Repositories in Github are colloquially called repo and is frequently interchanged with the word project.

Repos in Github essentially act like cloud storage, in that you upload and host files in the internet. But is much more than that; as projects come in all sorts of forms. Repos could host code, documentation, and even a website.

Commits

Any changes made to a repo, adding, removing or modifying things, is called a commit. When you are uploading, deleting, or modifying files, you are commiting changes to a repo.

Commits are useful because they log things. You can look up previous commits made for reference that might be of use. It is even possible to revert back to previous commits made or even an entire instance of a project, but that is a topic for another time.