What is GitHub? Why programmers use GitHub?

For the upcoming software developers and the existing riders, it is always hard to manage and select the right tools, platform or technology to showcase their skills and work progression. We wonder exactly which platform could be best for developers to work on, to get the maximum benefit and satisfaction.

There are plenty of open-source developing platforms available in the developing market but there is only one name that comes first in my mind that is GITHUB. It is the one-stop station to create and develop projects and get noticed for long effortful work. The percentage of the people, who use it, is also high. So let’s unbox it.

What is GitHub?

GitHub is an open-source hosting platform, which provides the software development version control to the users. The cloud-based service opens the door for the developers to manage and store their codes with an advantage to change and track it with the possession of full authority. It is the largest open-source hosting platform on the planet for coding. In addition to the Git code warehouse hosting and basic web management interface, it also provides subscriptions, discussion groups, text rendering, online file editors, collaboration maps (reports), and code snippet sharing ( Gist) and other functions.

GitHub uses a git distributed version control system, and git was originally created by Linus Torvalds to help Linux development. It is aimed at the Linux platform, so git and Windows have never been best friends because it is nothing like Windows. However,  GitHub released GitHub for Windows, an easy-to-use Git graphical client for Windows platform developers.

It can host a variety of git repositories and provide a web interface, but it is different from open source software project service SourceForge or Google Code. GitHub’s unique selling point is the ease of branching from another project. Contributing code for a project is very simple: first click the “fork” button on the project site, then check out the code and add the changes to the code base just separated, and finally be responsible to the project through the built-in “pull request” mechanism. Open source projects under different GPL license can be hosted for free, but private libraries are not.

Why programmers use GitHub?

There is no need to be surprised why the large portion of developers use the services of it. It is an all in one package for the users that make them comfortable by providing a large number of toolsets. Thus, allowing developers to develop their skills on the best practice platform of coding. It gives the opportunity to make a name for ourselves by exposing developing skills in front of the world through innovative inventions, which could be beneficial for a career in software developing sector. Github has more than 37 million developer users. As more and more applications move to the cloud, Github has become the preferred method of managing software development and discovering existing code.

We will go through the main points of the advantages of using GitHub services.

Easier version control

One of the main reasons for using GitHub is, it makes easy for developers to control the version of code they are working on such as JavaScript, PHP and Python etc. The workflow of the versions should be affirmative for any developer while working on any open source platform and GitHub is the place for this. The toolsets we get form the GitHub makes easy for us to convert the work in any previous version, thus better control over code.

Repository

The graphical interface of the GitHub provides developers with easy access to its repository. We can use it to store and manage our works or find any data from the commit list plus also can see any change made in there. Furthermore, it will help developers to promote their hard-working projects to the mass of coding buddies and they can review or guide them on a particular work to get the job done and get recognizable. The repository works as a library and a marketing tool for programming endeavours.

Gist

The Gist is a type of Pastebin application which can be used for storing plain short texts or codes. GitHub creates the Gist to store and share short noted scripts of codes or texts with other programmers. It can be considered as mini-projects to make a repository of its own. Like the main repository, you can recover and see the changes in any Gist. It has two options that avail Gist codes according to developers’ need.

• Public
• Private

The public is the default option to share it with mass while the Private is the one you can hide code or text from other users. Only you can see it.

Collaboration tool

The collaboration tool of GitHub is a service to collaborate your work without any difficulty. One can work with any developer on any project he/she wish to work.

• You can give the rights to work on your codes in the repository by submitting the access rights to anyone or everyone.
• Any user can fork out a copy of the project to their system to work on it. Thus, the main copy will be untouched and if the improvisation in the forking copy worked well then by the help of Pull Request, the main copy can be converted like the forking one.
• Pull Request is the procedure to make an application for the changes or ongoing work in a code or project to get the approval from the GitHub community.
• GitHub saves a lot of time and effort by tracking bugs or changes via the repository with quick identification of codes or files.

Perfect open-source platform

GitHub is the place we should look for developing our project or skills. Users will get vast tools to organize their projects with the help of other users or work in collaboration with the collaboration tools. We would get the opportunity to learn from other developers and professionals too on GitHub. Even the big companies working on GitHub could become a mentor to increase your developing skills. You can simply follow any particular developer or entity to get more knowledge to enhance your career path.

Wrapping up

This is just an overview of GitHub to give the readers a minimum idea or knowledge about it. To know more about GitHub, you can use the comment section to notify us.