When working on a large team of software developers, a number of problems arise. The biggest one being the management of the source code. The source code is usually many files, and every programmer is working on a different piece of it. With a lot of different people working, managing the source code and versions can become chaotic, quickly. Imagine, one programmer makes a change to a file and sends it out to everyone. Everyone else must then update their code with the new version of the file. But what happens if one person didn’t get the update? If they were to then send out their own version of the file, The first person’s code vanishes because the second person didn’t include the first person’s code in the updated file. To avoid issues like these, large teams use version control software and centralized code bases.
Git aims to fix the above issue by keeping the code in something called a repository. If a programmer wants to work on a piece of code, they can get it from the repository. When they make a change they can push the change to the repository. By keeping the source code in a centralized place that all the coders have access to, you lessen the risk of someone not having the correct version of code. Git also has another feature that is important for software development, a history of changes. Git keeps track of every change made to the code, as well as who made the change. This is especially useful when you are trying to debug a program. You can look through the Git log to figure out when the bug was introduced, and who introduced it. Git is not the only piece of software like this, in fact it’s not even the first. Git is not the only one of its kind, but it has grown in popularity thanks to GitHub.
Group coding projects can be stressful, but Github helps make the process a little bit easier. Github allows users to store their Git repositories on the cloud for free. The catch, is that these free repositories are public repositories which are available for anyone to view. This service appeals to college students, who are usually on a budget, and don’t mind if their class projects are publicly available. Students can use Github to share their code, and use Git to keep track of all of the changes. This, among other factors, is why Git is one of the most popular programs for version control.