In the world of Software Engineering, Version Control plays a major role in developers day to day life. It allows a group of developers or contributors to work on the same project independently. As the development gets complex, there would be a bigger need to maintain and manage multiple versions (several file changes) of the source code. That’s where version control comes in to make a developer’s life easy.
What is VCS?
Version Control System is a practice of maintaining and managing the project’s source code over time. VCS is a software tool that helps developers to track the source code changes made by fellow developers in the team or contributors. VCS helps the team to work faster and better individually without any worries. It keeps track of the code changes in a specific kind of database. Since all the information is available, we can just turn our clock to get back to the previous version of the software anytime in case of any bugs or mistakes in the latest version. This is the major advantage of using version control system software to manage the source code of every software project.
What is Git?
Git is a free, open-source, and powerful version control software that is by far the most widely used worldwide by software developers today. Git is a distributed version control system, meaning each user will have their own copy of their project code on the hard drive instead of relying on a central server that stores the file changes. It has a lot of advantages and features that make development and collaboration easy. There are many more advantages to using git, from security, flexibility, etc. You will understand them better once you started using Git. Now let’s look at some resources where you can start learning git better and use them for future reference.
Git Tower
The Tower is a git client tool that is available for both Mac and Windows. Along with the tool, the website provides a free online book to learn Git visually with colorful images to understand the concepts easily. This book teaches us, Git via command line and their Desktop GUI tool. It walks us through the basics of What is git? to more advanced topics. The website also provides Git Cheatsheet, Video courses, Live Webinars, etc.
Getting Git Right
Atlassian provides a free tutorial series from getting started with Git to a wide range of topics in a step-by-step method. The tutorials explain all the concepts in a detailed manner visually with the help of images. The site contains a separate section as a Glossary, which will have the list of Git commands and terminologies and their related tutorials below. The website also presents tutorials on Migrating to Git from other version control systems like Apache SVN and Perforce.
Udacity
Udacity provides a free course named “Version Control with Git”. It covers the fundamentals of using the Git version control system. The course starts by introducing the purpose and terminologies of Git. It proceeds further on creating your first Git Repository and also working with the existing Git Repository. Later it addresses commits, history of changes, branches, merging, and so on. You would gain the strong Git basics at the course end, good enough to start using in your projects.
Learn Git Branching
Learn Git Branching is an interactive website that animatedly teaches git. The website contains a set of challenges to solve, in which each challenge contains a variety of exciting levels. In each challenge, you’ll be provided with a step-by-step demonstration of the git features and their corresponding tasks to complete to proceed further to the next level. The website provides a command-line interface to type and play with the commands in a gamified method.
Pro Git Book
Pro Git is a textbook for Git written by Scott Chacon and Ben Straub, available for free in an online version on Git’s official website. This textbook will teach all you need to know to become a master in Git. Apart from teaching you about Git commands and their features, it also gives you knowledge of how git works internally. Moreover, it is available in both EPUB and PDF formats. This book is also available in more than 15+ foreign languages. Also, it is currently being translated into a few other languages as well.
GitKraken
GitKraken is a free git GUI client for Linux, Windows, and Mac. The website provides a free set of tutorials for Learning git with ease. Each tutorial explains the concepts and features in detail, and the animated videos for easy learning and better understanding. Additionally, the site has video tutorials, Git’s best practices, tips & tricks, solutions to common git issues, Git commands reference guide, and definitions of git terminologies.
First Aid Git
First aid Git is a collection of the most frequently asked git-related questions and issues. It provides solutions to the most commonly raised queries with simple explanations and the corresponding git commands. The main motto of this website is to have an easy and quick way to search for the most common git issues when they arise. The site home page starts with a big search bar to type our queries and gives us the appropriate results.
Eduonix
Eduonix offers a free course on Git titled “Git for Beginners”, which teaches you, Git, from basics by installing the software and creating a repository. The course further walks you through by teaching all the foundational commands needed to work on a basic project. After getting a strong foundation from the basics, you will explore ways to compare different versions of your source code, branching, merging, etc. Later, you will learn more complex topics such as rebasing, git tags, stashing a set of file changes, resolving conflicts. After finishing this course, you will be having all the required fundamental git knowledge to work on any git projects.
Git Immersion
Git Immersion is a guided tour that walks you through the fundamentals of Git by teaching the concepts in the form of Labs. The website provides around 50+ labs. You will gain knowledge on one git concept in every lab, starting from installation to the most common git topics. All the concepts in every lab were explained in a user-friendly manner. Each lab gives you a simple description of the concept and the corresponding commands to try it yourself so that the learner can grasp the concept very quickly.
Visual Git Reference
A Visual Git Reference is a simple web project by Mark Lodato that explains how git works via colorful diagrams. It starts by teaching us the basic git workflow and conventions. The site explains the most common git commands pictorially by explaining how each step occurs behind the scenes. Additionally, it provides an online Git Playground tool, where you can try out several git commands and visualize how they work. Also, this project is available in a few other foreign languages as well.
Conclusion
Version control is an essential skill that every software developer and programmer should master. Today, almost 99% of the IT industries use version control software to manage their source code. It is better to start learning Git today if you haven’t yet. Happy Coding 👨💻
