If you want to host some open source code, there are many many options. Going from the grand-daddy of all open source repositories SourceForge to some more unknown, like Assembla. But one host that has seen extreme growth over the last few years is undoubtedly GitHub. It’s built on the Git system, which makes it incredibly easy to cooperate and exchange ideas in code. No longer is there a need to have dedicated teams working on a project. It’s all ad-hoc and social.
One of the suggestions I get a lot (and I love your comments and suggestions!), is to provide more complete code for some of the tutorials/samples I give. I usually only show small parts of a larger solution and let the other stuff as “an exercise to the reader”. Understandably, this doesn’t always communicate my solution very clearly. Some people just like to browse through existing code.
And you know, they are right. So, in the future, I’m going to try to provide some complete code. And I’m also going through some of my older, but popular, posts to enhance them with a clear code sample.
I choose GitHub for two reasons, first because it is something popular I’d like to get to know it and secondly because the way Git seems to handle branching and cooperation sounds really great (and I’d like to try that too).
I used a few sources to get started:
- The refcard on Git is an easy way to get quickly up to speed with Git. There’s an explanation of how it works and also a description of the two workflows you’ll most likely encounter when working with Git.
- There are many tutorials out there to convert you from Subversion, which is probably something almost any developer is familiar with by now.
- And finally GitHub itself has a treasure trove of guides available on anything you’ll need.
After a little configuration, I’m now all set to create my first GitHub project. Coming soon (I already have my first badge).