Useful Tool

What is GitHub?

An excellent question! When you talk to developers, the term GitHub is used as naturally as any other buzzword. Outside the developer community, however, it's often unclear for many people what GitHub actually is. That's why here's our little GitHub crash course.

A General Overview #

GitHub is a place for anyone interested in developing software. It's where you host your projects ( Fancy word for: storing your code-files online), work on them, and network with other developers, who can even help you work on your project.

Github Is Like a Giant Online Office-Desk for Developers #

That means anyone who uses this “desk” (GitHub) can look at any given project that happens to be “on the desk” and give a proposal for improving said project. Then the project-owner can look at all the proposals and decide whether or not they actually provide value. Tadaaaaa - you have a better version of your code with the collective help of random strangers. Best day ever!

But the magic isn’t over: This shared working space has a little wizard that accurately documents each version of the project. Why does it do that? Let’s say you are so excited about an idea that you implement it immediately. Only to find that you just made everything worse and you now stand before an existential crisis. Is all you’ve worked for now ruined? As a result, you want nothing more than to go back to the old version. Fortunately, this is possible in this case! On GitHub, you can easily undo your mistakes and revert your project to any past versions. Amazing!

Now what if you want to host your project with GitHub, but you don’t want people snooping around? No problem, you can decide whether your files are public or private.Public projects can be seen and worked on by anyone, while private projects are only visible to selected developers. If someone has a suggestion for improvement, they can submit it using a so-called "pull request". If you like it, you can adopt it.

Many Useful Features #

GitHub is, in other words, a project management platform, especially for developers. And like any other platform, it offers tools and features to make your and therefor your life much easier.

Our two favorite features:

  • An issue tracker: A to-do list in which you can list all issues and pending tasks, so you can keep track of them.
  • A wiki: Here you can easily document important info about your project.

But GitHub can do much more:

  • Education: Here, the platform and features are made available to students and schools for free.
  • Jobs: Companies can use GitHub to look for developers. This means that if you publish your code on GitHub, your next employer might take notice.
  • Marketplace: GitHub has many additional features that you can buy by using the Marketplace.
  • Community: Here you can meet other developers, exchange information about projects and get tips and tricks for your future projects.
  • Symbol Image What is GitHub

GitHub summed up in one sentence: an online desk for developers to collaborate and get the most out of their code projects.

If you like this article, check out our blog for more. And if you’re interested in working with bitperfect feel free to contact us. Your team at bitperfect is looking forward to hearing from you.

published on

Similar Blogposts