Version Control Utilities
The goal of a “version control” tool is to help us track changes in our code, and easily interface with code hosting and collaboration platforms like GitHub.
Git is a leading system for performing version control. Professionals may prefer to use Git from the command line, but there is a learning curve. So beginners are encouraged to get started with GitHub Desktop first, which provides an easier to use graphical user interface (GUI).
In this workshop we will use GitHub Desktop to download repositories from GitHub. We will revisit command-line Git in a future workshop.
GitHub Desktop
Installation and Configuration
Beginners are encouraged to install GitHub Desktop software, for Mac or Windows.
NOTE: GitHub Desktop may require the Git command line utility to also be installed on your computer (see below).
After installing, you will need to login with your GitHub account credentials. See this GitHub Desktop setup guide for more information.
After installing, from the settings, choose VS Code as your default text editor, and either Terminal (Mac) or Git Bash (Windows) as your default command-line utility.
Success Criteria
You should be able to open the GitHub Desktop application, and visit the settings to see you are logged in with your GitHub account, and also see the desired tools selected in the integration settings.
Git CLI
Installation and Configuration
Installing Git depends on your operating system:
- Windows users who have installed Git Bash will have satisfied the Git installation requirement.
- Mac users may find that a system version of Git is already installed, and that might be sufficient to satisfy the Git installation requirement. Any Mac users who encounter errors or who desire a newer version of Git can install Git from https://git-scm.com/downloads, or consider installing Homebrew, and using Homebrew to install Git (
brew install git).
Success Criteria
Verifying Git has been installed:
git --version