Certification – July 2019

TECH KNOW

From Git to GitHub

In 2019 we have GitHub, which ac-
tually originated not all that long after
Git. First launched in 2008, GitHub
came into existence as a web portal of
sorts for teams or individuals to set up
and carry out development projects
using Git. By late 2013, not quite six
years after its creation, GitHub was
hosting more than 10 million projects
on behalf of more than 3 million users.
Today, GitHub brings together the
world’s largest community of devel-
opers to discover, share, and build
better software. You can collaborate
with people from all over the world,
or with your own private teams. It’s
a central object and code repository
accessible on the internet, anytime you
need it or care to use it.
You simply create an account and
start interacting. Git enjoys great
community support and a vast user
base. Documentation is excellent and
plentiful, including books, tutorials,
and dedicated web sites. There are
also podcasts and video tutorials. Stor-
ing your work in Git is more or less
standard practice for many program-
ming teams.

Git ‘skills’ are hot

With tech employment facilitator
Dice recently ranking this skill set as
a “must have,” what do employer ac-
tually have in mind when they ask for
Git skills? This author doesn’t believe
that employers actually want people
who are deeply versed in version
control software — that is more or
less inherent in being or becoming a
developer.
What employers are really asking
for is collaboration ability. To what
extent are you willing to put yourself
out there, with teammates and virtual
teammates, and take criticism? When
you write something and distribute it
for analysis, you are putting your per-
sonal thoughts and abilities on display
and asking for others to add to them.

This skill set, the ability to move

forward as a good, positive team

member is what employers really

want. It’s all but certain that no one is

intending to verify that you actually

know how to check your code into a

central repository, and open it up for

collaboration.

If you aren’t directly familiar with

Git, don’t fret. Git is surprisingly easy

to learn: you just need to create an

account, watch a video tutorial, and

then move forward with using it on a

daily basis. Simple, right? Git may not

be perfect, but it really is that straight-

forward to “git” started.

GitHub: Git hand in Git glove

If you know Git — meaning,

essentially, that you’ve used Git —

then you probably know GitHub, too.

GitHub has essentially replaced every

other major source code repository

out there. It is quickly becoming, and

in many instances has already be-

come, the main repository for all team

development environments, no matter

where a given team is geographically

dispersed.

Vast numbers of developers have

Git experience, and a significant por-

tion of college graduates are likely to

If you aren’t directly familiar with Git, don’t

fret. Git is surprisingly easy to learn: you just need

to create an account, watch a video tutorial, and

then move forward with using it on a daily basis.

Simple, right?