Chapter 1. Introduction
In this chapter I’ll start by introducing Git and GitHub. What are they, what is the difference between them, and why would you want to use them? I’ll then introduce some other common terms that you’ll often hear mentioned when people are discussing GitHub. That way you’ll be able to understand and participate in discussions about your projects more easily.
What Is Git?
Git is a version control system. A version control system is a piece of software designed to keep track of the changes made to files over time. More specifically, Git is a distributed version control system, which means that everyone working with a project in Git has a copy of the full history of the project, not just the current state of the files.
What Is GitHub?
GitHub is a platform where you can upload a copy of your Git repository (often shortened to repo), hosted either on GitHub.com, by your company on a cloud provider (like Azure, AWS, or IBM Bluemix), or on your company’s own servers behind its firewall. But more than just uploading your Git repositories, it allows you to collaborate much more easily with other people on your projects. It does that by providing a centralized location to share the repository, a web-based interface to view it, and features like forking, Pull Requests, Issues, Projects, and GitHub Wikis that allow you to specify, discuss, and review changes with your team more effectively.
Why Use Git?
Even if you’re working on your own, if you are editing text ...
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