GitHub

In depth

Tool

The largest platform for Git hosting, code review, issues and CI/CD (GitHub Actions).

GitHub, explained

Written by EduVerse

GitHub is a website, owned by Microsoft, where teams store their Git repositories online. Git itself runs on your computer; GitHub adds what happens around it: pull requests for code review, issues for tracking work, GitHub Actions for automation and project boards. Many open-source projects live there too, so you’ll visit it constantly.

Why teams use it

A team needs one shared copy of the code to push to and pull from, plus a place to discuss changes. GitHub provides both, and since so many developers already have an account, collaborating is easy and your own projects double as a portfolio. GitLab and Bitbucket are similar; companies usually stick with what they already use.

An example from work

You push a new branch and GitHub shows a banner with a “Compare & pull request” button. You open the pull request, describe your change and ask a colleague for a review. They leave comments on specific lines, the checks at the bottom turn green, and you can merge.

Our own explanation, not a quote from the book.

In the book

Sentences from The Software Realm, Decoded that mention GitHub, exactly as printed.

Peter
“So Git is the tool, GitHub is where I back it up?”
Chapter 1 · 1.3.2 Git Is Not GitHub · p. 28Open in the free preview
What they say
“Open a PR when you’re ready.”
What they mean
Push your code to the server and create a request for someone to review your changes before they go into the main codebase. Go to GitHub and click ’New Pull Request.’
Chapter 1 · 1.3.7 Pull Requests: Code Review Before Merging · p. 34Open in the free preview

Where it fits

Hosting repositories, pull requests, CI/CD, open source

Coverage in the book