Git Hub Question(s)

(tldr ; I don’t see the usefulness of Git and GitHub, as Im working alone and not in a team environment . )

So Ive been working on understanding Git and GitHub a bit more. So far its going going, ok. Im using VS Code as my IDE so instead of using the terminal, Ive been opting to use the built in functionality in the application to create repos and push projects to GitHub and all that… Is this bad :thinking:? Ive been learning to use my computers command line to CD into folders and create files and folders (mkdir, touch, etc.) , but im still a little shaky on understanding Git from a terminal perspective… Probably because Im not using it as much as I need to … Which brings me to my other question :face_with_monocle:

From my understanding, Git Hub is used not only as a place to store repositiries and share your projects with a team; but also as a work portfolio??? Well, because Im working alone, I have no real need to upload to GitHub as a way of sharing with a team who will be making pulls on my code. And I don’t think that Ive gotten to a point where I REALLY even need to record repos of my work because most of the projects I do are not so complex that I can’t just save and come back to later with no problem. And if I make a mistake, the project is simple enough for me to debug so I wouldn’t really need to go and grab a previous repo to work from…

At what point would I NEED to start using GIT and GitHub for my projects? I don’t see the usefulness for me at this stage in my process… To me it seems like more of a tool to be used in a team, and Im working alone at the moment.

I initially thought that GitHub would serve as a kind of, "Professional Portfolio " but Im failing to see how this is even the case. It seems that tools like CodePen would work better as a portfolio of my work because of its ability to render out my code right there on the site…

Am I making sense?

Am I missing something?

Can someone please help me better understand what Im failing to see? :thinking:

  • You can’t license code of codepen
  • You don’t have project boards there
  • People can’t open issues there
  • You can’t store full-stack/large applications there
  • Folks can’t contribute to your code there
  • You can’t run ci/automated actions using GitHub on CodePen
  • Codepen is just a place where people make awesome css designs and share
  • GitHub is where open source lives!
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You just need to make something that people use, if they use your project you’ll get 10 issues/5 pull requests opened every week! Many people hire folks directly from GitHub. GitHub is a better choice, for portfolio projects, as it shows lot more than your code, It shows collaboration, skills, devops, knowledge, public speaking!

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Ok.

thank you for replying.

Im trying to understand :thinking:

How would you get people to use a project? Social media? Make a library or some type of extension? I don’t fully understand.

Hello. :smiley:
The most important part of Github is collaboration. The repositories are only means to solicit collaborations from others folks to improve your software, ML project or whatever you are trying to do.
This is doing by pull requests for collaboration on Github. You cannot do that on codepen. When you open a pull request, you’re proposing possible changes and maybe, requesting other people to review and pull in, and then merge & branch. You cannot make branching and merging on codepen. In conclusion Github is Not only to show your work to others and done.
Hope it helps.

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Please, don’t go for the hard stuff, You just need to add value to the community! Like you can make a template that you use for your project, if people find it interesting, they’ll use it. 90% projects on open source are just self-project that people use in daily lives. Like a library of animations (animate.css). Just make some soulution that solves your problem! I guarantee it will solve the problem of 1000 others!

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True said, github develops your impersonate skills! Allows you to contribute to your favourite projects like react, angular, django! Collaboration First Code Second

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Man, this really opens my eyes… I never thought about it like that… It kinda makes me nervous, because Im still learning… Ive just been building simple websites and learning Javascript and React js. Trying to find my footing with understanding how it all comes together…

The possibilities with code seems to open up more every day.

Now I need to think about how I can create something USEFUL :rofl:

Its alot.

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You just need to add value, just push any code you want people to see and use! Any code that you want to be public! It is just like documenting your code life!

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If you are interested in learning more about pull requests, these could be the first hint:
https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/about-pull-requests

Have a nice day.

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Maybe you can also check EddieHub it is a great resource for people getting into opensource

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Thank you, I really appreciate your help :pray:

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Ok, but you would need some type of social media or blog or something to get people to even find your repos right :thinking:?

Not that Im necessarily overeager to jump into any style of collaboration at the moment; but im just curious as to how these people would find my code once its published.

I have found a lot of luck on twitter and linkedin.
I am pretty active on there and connecting with other developers will help people see your work.

One thing that is popular right now is building projects in public.
Sometimes, I will post screenshots or ask questions on twitter and people will like and comment on my post and checkout my github.

Also, it helps for perspective employers to check you out.

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Goott itt thanks :+1:

Do you think that it matters if you are using the terminal to work with git or the built in tools for accessing it in VS Code?

Are there benefits for using the command line to make push and pull repos vs doing so in the IDE?

It would help to learn how to use the command line now.
It might seem intimidating at first but once you get used to it then it is not so bad.

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Understood. Thanks. :face_with_monocle:

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You can customize your github to only show your best projects on your main profile page.

In the beginning, just focus on building projects.
Then when you start building more complex apps, you can showcase those repos on your profile.

In the end, people aren’t going to dig through all of your repos.
They are just going to look at the first ones you choose to showcase.

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Ok I think I understand.

So as far as using GitHub as a “portfolio” of your work, Its more so an “open source portfolio” and not like a “portfolio website” in the way Codepen kinda is?

In addition what the others said, it is important to make a distinction between Git and GitHub.
Git is an open source distributed version control system/protocol while GitHub is a hosting provider for software development and version control using Git.

One of the benefits of Git, even for single person teams, is the ability to tinker and play with your code, or any source for that matter, without worrying about your last best version or the need to make repeated copies of a large base. You can just branch out, play check, throw away or merge back into your main branch. Or even create multiple versions at the same time to compare with each other and switch between them almost instantaneously.

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