What is git?
This is the third part of my git series on learning version control. It was pointed out to me by a friend who has read my previous posts that I didn’t properly explain what is git actually is, and also what it isn’t. So I’m going to explain a bit about that here before we move back to the tutorials.
Git is a software tool that we use to track the changes made to our software over time. It allows you to look back at the history of a software project and see what the code looked like 1 day, 1 year, or even 10 years in the past. You will typically install git on your laptop or desktop machine, but it’s not really a tool that is useful on a mobile phone or tablet.
Git is part of a free, global family of software that we call open source. This means that it is in the public domain and anyone in the world can gain access to the source code, as well as modify the source code to add additional features and make improvements. It also means you can use the software for free and it will not cost you anything until you start using other companion tools. Many companies have built these companion tools to make the process easier or more collaborative, but the core git tool is still free.
When I use git, most of the features that I need are free. I primarily use it with the command line which we talked a little about in post 2. This is obviously the most advanced way to use git because it requires knowledge of the command line; which is another learning experience by itself. There are also several graphical programs that you can use to manage a git repository, most of which are also free.
One of the most popular graphical tools is called SourceTree. This is a program that manages local git repositories on your hard drive but gives you a graphical representation of the history for you to view. This is often super helpful since visualizing the history in a git repository can become challenging as the project grows and more developers work on the same project.
For me personally, I use couple tools that are more basic and have less features than SourceTree. This because I find their simplicity easier to work with, and also I have been familiar with them for some time now; so it is the fastest way for me to work. These tools are called “gitk” and “git gui” which I will do an entire post on how to install these tools and use them in the future.
For now, I just wanted to introduce a bit more of the concepts of what git is before we dive back into tutorials. You can take a look at the git website here where you can download installer packages for your system, but I’m going to also write my own install tutorials in the coming weeks. As you can see from the bottom of the page, git is used by many of the largest companies in the world.
As I write these posts, I’m putting together my thoughts on the best way to teach and explain these topics, so I really appreciate the feedback from my friend. If you have more questions please comment below and I’ll be sure to address them.
