Nerdy Lifestyle Changes: Git!
More on my series of Nerdy Lifestyle Changes, I’ve started using GIT for my version control, both on my personal projects and group projects. Git is a distributed version control system, meaning that each computer maintains the set of all changes ever made. At first, this idea seems pretty radical compared to the more traditional notions of CVS or SVN, but there are some real advantages to using it.
I’m not going to go into any specifics about Git, because there are so many more resources out there that discuss things about Git I haven’t even begun to understand, but I will discuss how it has improved my nerdiness.
I used to be an SVN guy, which meant setting up a repository somewhere every time I wanted to version control a personal project. This was cumbersome, because really all I wanted to do was take advantage of the ability to make radical changes or deletions, without the need to worry about potentially losing some work I’ve already done.
With Git, however, setting up version control takes a single terminal command. Branching and merging are incredibly simple, which makes me more likely to take advantage of branching for tasks like fixing bugs or implementing features.
I have only started to really begin utilizing branching, but you could conceivably create a branch for every single major task, with virtually no workflow overhead, which provides some obvious and powerful benefits.
I haven’t had much of a chance to use Git for collaborative projects, but that’s really what it’s designed for. I’m planning on using it for the production of Fitlia, where I’ll hopefully be collaborating with several others. For those who want some notion of centralization, there is GitHub, which provides remote git repositories for free for open source projects, and at a reasonable fee for private ones, along with a whole slew of collaborative tools.
For instance, you can find the GitHub page for my newest project DDMVC, which you’ll hear more about later, I’m sure.
I really enjoy using Git for my projects, and it’s given me a chance to play with using the linux terminal a little more. This page helped me out a lot getting started: Git Basics.