should i use github / git regularly

i just hop from building one project to another and many people told me that i should add all my projects to github is it really that important, i have a github account but i have never done anything with it
40 Replies
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
you should use git regularly yes github probably too, but git definitely it's a skill that will be expected of you if you get a job in the industry, it helps you keep track of changes you made to your solo projects, offers a backup of your code, lets you revert to earlier working versions of your code
bfmv
bfmvOP5mo ago
okay
Ganesh
Ganesh5mo ago
Your GitHub account can sort of function like a portfolio since it will house the code for your projects. Also iirc you are doing odin project and it should've told you good practices to follow when using git like when to commit and commit message conventions So keep an eye on that too
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
also, git is the only tool or language I can pretty much guarantee you'll be using in a professional environment
Rägnar O'ock
Rägnar O'ock5mo ago
you can also look into gitlab or other alternatives if you are not a fan of Microsoft
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
or just self-host a remote git repo on a server with ssh enabled that's what I do now
Rägnar O'ock
Rägnar O'ock5mo ago
harder to use it as portfolio if you do that but it works
13eck
13eck5mo ago
Should you use Git? Absolutely. Should you use Github? Probably, as that's the most popular way to share git repos. But if it's just for you then you can self-host or use another Git provider.
Ganesh
Ganesh5mo ago
How does self hosting work. Did you need to write custom code for the server for merge, rebase, branch protection etc or are there just open source solutions that you can easily set up
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
you make a folder, then inside set up a repo with git init --bare iirc it's just the git part of course, but that's all I need as a solo dev and all you need in a small team too though iirc you can selfhost gitlab in docker? I might be misremembering
bfmv
bfmvOP5mo ago
ohkayy
13eck
13eck5mo ago
If you have a server of your own and are comfortable with the command line and setting it all up, it's pretty good. But it takes a lot of work to make it public. If you're not comfortable doing that github/gitlab/etc would be a better option. Or, of course, you could use it as an excuse reason to learn server management lol
ἔρως
ἔρως5mo ago
do not make your own git and make it public if you dont know what you are doing
Ganesh
Ganesh5mo ago
Oh didn't know git had their own thing for it
13eck
13eck5mo ago
☝️
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
git is intended to be decentralized folks always think that github made git, but afaik git was an opensource project long before github was a thing and always intended to use on its own
ἔρως
ἔρως5mo ago
git is it's own thing. everything is a front-end for git.
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
github is just the most popular online host for git repositories
13eck
13eck5mo ago
Yeppers. Github came from people not wanting to do it themselves. Not the other way around
ἔρως
ἔρως5mo ago
just like everything is a frontend for ffmpeg ...
13eck
13eck5mo ago
Github/bucket/lab/etc are all PaaS for git
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
and tbh, I get it, cause there's a lot of benefits to having that frontend for a team, especially stuff like merge requests and running ci/cd stuff, but it's totally viable to set up a locally hosted thing too. If you already have the server and a tiny bit of linux console knowledge, it literally takes 2 minutes
13eck
13eck5mo ago
Git was designed b/c Linus Torvalds didn't like the options of the mid-aughts for decentralized version control when he was working on linux -# IIRC
ἔρως
ἔρως5mo ago
mercurial was the new one back then, and he hated it with good reasons, from what i heard ... and it didnt do what he needed
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
which, fucking fair. SVN sucked CVS was even worse
ἔρως
ἔρως5mo ago
wait, wasnt it mercurial? i heard that svn sucks, but never tried it personally
13eck
13eck5mo ago
Git was created in '05 b/c Subversion sucked 🍑
ἔρως
ἔρως5mo ago
okay, it was svn ... i had in mind it was mercurial
13eck
13eck5mo ago
According to Wikipedia both Git and Mercurial were '05
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
I used SVN for a while at work, and it was a nightmare compared to git
13eck
13eck5mo ago
SVN was '00 So as to not derail the question: https://discord.com/channels/436251713830125568/1393236531484954726
bfmv
bfmvOP5mo ago
so if, git is like emails, github is like google gmail?
13eck
13eck5mo ago
Sorta kinda but not really Gmail is an email provider that's locked to gmail. You can't take your gmail account and use it for yahoo mail—they're two different providers It's more like git is your mobile service provider and github is your mobile phone. You can swap out your Pixel for an iPhone while still having the same service provider Or, to continue with your email analogy, git is like your gmail account and github is Apple Mail and Gitlab is Outlook. Same email (git repo) different way of accessing it (Apple mail and Outlook)
bfmv
bfmvOP5mo ago
ohh as a beginner how much of git, should i bother with 🤔 https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Viewing-the-Commit-History this doesnt look beginners stuff even though it says basics😭
Ganesh
Ganesh5mo ago
are you trying these out yourself in a git repo? that's how they will stick. as for how much of these you would use right now is that I use oneline and patch mostly
bfmv
bfmvOP5mo ago
nope first i want to learn how to upload projects in github
Ganesh
Ganesh5mo ago
you should try them even if you can't upload projects yet the book should've told you how to install git and create a local repo with git init
bfmv
bfmvOP5mo ago
yeah is it fine if i keep my gmail hidden in github account
Jochem
Jochem5mo ago
yeah

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