What is Github?

Github is a code hosting platform that offers collaborative tools and veersion control. It lets you collaborate on projects with people from anywhere in the world.

This platform lets you monitor the evolution of your code over time and gives you the freedom to work together with other developers on the same codebase. Github is a great platform for open-source contributions since it allows you to manage requests and incoporate changes into your projects.

Useful terms to know when using Github?

Version control involves a lot of terminology, and you may encounter several when working with Git and Github. A List of some of these important terms are broken down below

Branch: A branched off version of the codebase that is separate from the main branch in order to isolate updates for certain experiments, modifications, or features.
Commit: An image of the modifications you made, stored in your local repository. A checksum serves as a unique identification for each commit.
Stage: The location where Git stores modifications that are prepared for the following commit. The files located in the staging area are ready for the subsequent commit.
Merge: This is the process of blending modifications from one branch into another
Pull Request: A suggestion to combine modifications from one branch into another; frequently used to examine and talk about changes prior to merging in collaborative settings.
Fork: A personal version of another person's project hosted on your GitHub repository.
Origin: Git assigns this default name to the project that you cloned
Upstream: This is the original repository which was cloned
Push: This is the action of committing the````` changes in your Branch to a remote repository.
Push: This is the action of committing the changes in your Branch to a remote repository.
Pull: This is the process of pulling updates into your current branch from a remote repository.
Fetch This is the process of getting changes from a remote repository and adding them to your branch without merging them.
Repository: A place of storage for your project that houses all of its files and modification history.

Understanding these terms and their meanings will improve your coding process dramatically, allow for smooth teamwork, and allow you to make valuable contributions to open-source projects.

What are the benefits of Github

One of the key benefits of using Github is that without impacting the main codebase, you can quickly revert back to a previous version of your code or test out new functionality.

Another one of the benefits of using Github is that it keeps track of all code modifications, along with the person who changed them and when these changes were implemented, which is helpful for auditing and troubleshooting.