ThesisIsCode

Working a Little git at a Time

• git is version control
• Each change is recorded, all past versions are retained
• One version always works (more or less)

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What People Really Think

“git really changed the way I write code. I stopped making a whole bunch of huge changes, and started working on one thing at a time. It’s made fixing my code a lot easier, and I don’t run into problems as often.”

Simon Goring (when I’m feeling optimistic)

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Version Control

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Basics of Version Control

• Changes to files are important and done with purpose
• We record changing files and the reason for these changes
• Changes may not always be wanted; we want to undo unwanted changes
• We want a clear way to collaborate and understand when changes conflict.

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Basics of Version Control - Vocabulary

• A project that is managed with version control is called a repository
• Each snapshot of the repository at any one point is called a commit
• A repository can have multiple versions of the same code, called branches
• There is generally a main branch (see GitHub’s explanation for deprecating master)
• New features often get their own branch until they are ready to be added to main

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Basics of Version Control - Tools

• git is the most common version control system

• git is a command line utility

  • A number of GUIs work with git

• git watches files in your repository, it can also ignore certain files

  • .gitignore files are language/project specific; a long list of .gitignore files

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Tool for Working with git

• GitKraken (free/paid, Proprietary)
• GitHub Desktop (free, MIT)
• git GUI (comes with git)
• The git list of platform specific tools
• RStudio, Visual Studio Code functions.

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Using git

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git Workflow

• Initialize (set up the infrastructure)
• Edit your code/document &cetera
• Stage the changes before we commit the changes
• Commit the changes to git

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<img src="../images/gitStaging.png" width=70% alt="A diagram of commits & stages for git.">

Source: <a href=https://dev.to/sublimegeek/git-staging-area-explained-like-im-five-1anh>sublimegeek</a>

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Local git Workflow

• git init - Initialize a repository
• Make changes
• git add to stage changes
• git commit to commit changes

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Starting from Scratch (with RStudio)

Check your version.

simon@partyLaptop:~$ git --version
git version 2.25.1
simon@partyLaptop:~$

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Create New Project (RStudio)

simon@partyLaptop:~$ git init

Using RStudio

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GitHub & Online Repositories

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Public Code Repositories

• Support greater collaboration
• Acts as cloud backup
• Provides secondary services (GitHub Pages, Project boards, Issue trackers)

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Range of Options

• A large number of options exist across service levels & cost
• Wikipedia provides a comparison table of Source Code Hosting platforms
• We will focus on Github because of SJG’s familiarity with the platform

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A Repository for Home and Away - Naming It

• Your remote repository is the main version and the origin
• remote is the backup, the collaboration hub & the authority
• local is where you work on things

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A Repository for Home and Away - Getting It

• You can fork someone else’s repository to your account
• You can clone someone else’s repository (or your own) to your local computer
• You can create a new repository

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Fork and Clone

• http://github.com/throughput-ec/ThesisIsCode

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Fork and Clone (Active)

• Create new Project in RStudio “From Version Control”
• All files copied locally. Fun times!!

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What Makes a Good Repository

• Active work
• Explore Github
• Fill in a couple lines here: http://bit.ly/githubrepos

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What Makes a Good Repository (Discussion)

• Active discussion