Conclusion

What is GitHub?

GitHub is a hosting platform used by developers to save their code online and track its changes to see what will work when it comes to them working on their projects. GitHub is popular among people in the IT industry due to its easy-to-understand UI and its ability to act as a progress tracker using a Version Control System to track changes. This enables projects to be collaborative....

Reasons to use GitHub

Collaborative Projects: With its existing Version Control System (Git), and the hosting abilities of GitHub on its website, it provides great room for innovation and collaboration among developers to develop collaborative projects. Issue Tracker: Any grievances experienced by the developer when they use Git or GitHub can be taken with the tech support team. GitHub has specifically provided an issue tracker to every developer who uses GitHub to communicate the problems they experience while using Git or GitHub. Supporting Different Languages: As a code hosting platform, GitHub provides support to a huge list of coding languages and provides support specific to that language. Some of the languages they provide support to are not limited to C, C++, C#, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, HTML, Python, etc. Pull Requests: In repositories, developers viewing codes can change any files that may be necessary to optimize the code or fix any errors by utilizing pull requests which directly change the root node in the main repository. Hosting Code: GitHub provides a web platform where developers can host various codes for various purposes. Open Source Support: GitHub, due to the reasons mentioned above is a great hub for hosting Open Source platform codes and hosting them to commit and update any updates or changes in the platform....

Getting Started with GitHub

Step 1:  Go to the Website...

How to Use GitHub?

GitHub is a code hosting platform that can support multiple languages. Here, we’ll learn how to start with a few things, namely:...

What is a GitHub Repository?

It has similar functionalities to a folder in a System to store various projects in different folders. As we know, GitHub is a web-hosting platform for developers, hence to properly segregate and store code, they provide the developers with the ability to store files of their projects in such repositories in which they can edit, add and delete files. If the repository is public, other platform users can notify the repository owner of any bugs by utilizing Pull requests....

1. Create and Update Repositories on GitHub

The most important use case of GitHub is its ability as a hosting platform to store files on its website. GitHub provides developers with the tools to Create Repositories, update repositories either by editing files, or adding/deleting files. All these operations are seen in detail below....

2. How to Add Files to Your Repository?

Again, there are three ways to add files to your repository. One is using Git Bash, then with Github webpage UI and the other uses the Git GUI. In this article, we’ll learn to add files to your repository using the GitHub webpage....

3. How to Delete a GitHub Repository?

To delete a repository, navigate to the settings bar in the repository you want to delete....

4. Labels in GitHub

They are a way to provide tags for descriptive metadata available in your repository. The main functionality of Labels in GitHub is to organize push/pull requests, issues, and the different types of items available in a repository. It is also possible to create your custom label in GitHub....

5. Operations in GitHub

These are common procedures that have been performed on files in GitHub repositories with varying use cases. These are used to provide platform users with the ability to change the contents of their repositories dynamically....

6. What are Branches?

The branches in GitHub allow you to experiment safely with your code. Branches provide a safe space for code experimentation and debugging processes. Branches always start from the “main” repository and branch out to sub-repositories to test specific parts of the code in different environments. This is done to not commit any changes in the main code, but if needed the branches can be committed to the root repository....

7. Cloning Repositories

GitHub offers many features such as cloning repositories. This is done to keep a copy of the repository on your desktop, and the changes you make in the Desktop files will also be reflected on the GitHub page....

8. Forking a Repository

A fork is created when a new repository is created by copying a previously existing public repository to add your changes to it. These changes can be personal or you could submit a pull request to the owner of the original repository to apply these changes....

Alternatives of GitHub For Developers

GitHub is one of the well-known VCS hosting platforms out there, but there are many more players providing services similar to GitHub in case you want to explore other alternatives....

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI integration by GitHub used to autocomplete codes for languages that it supports. GitHub copilot can be integrated with an IDE to generate code. It is not necessary to use a specific platform anymore. Currently, it is a paid subscription, but it is potent with the ability to generate code automatically with less than a few prompts....

Future Scope

With its constant updates in functionality and its leaning towards a low code or no code environment for its, UI has dramatically increased user-friendliness among people from different walks of life. Right now, GitHub will only continue to upgrade its already existing functionalities and become even more popular....

Conclusion

Due to its user-friendly and versatile nature, knowledge about Git and GitHub is very valuable for many companies. Despite it being user-friendly, the sheer ability to customize almost anything, especially after the introduction of GitHub copilot has made it an attractive skill in the IT industry. It is also due to its dedicated community help in bug fixing, solving issues and so much more, that learning GitHub is a must. However, due to there being so many components to creating or removing repositories, and storing and editing code, it may be a little overwhelming for beginners who may just be starting to learn how to properly use Git and GitHub....