This post is for beginners who really want to get started with GitHub.
All those who have learnt programming want to take it to the next steps, i.e., exploring other projects and contributing your knowledge to the open source world.
For this, the first thing that strikes in our mind is to use GitHub.
But for beginners, it takes not even a second to give up when they see GitHub Explore, GitHub Showcases and GitHub Trending. The projects here are really interesting and mouth-watering when you see it.
However, when you open any of these repositories, you dream shakes after seeing the repo, its code and what not. You feel that you haven’t learnt even ‘c’ of coding and feel like giving up.
I bet you shouldn’t do this.
You are exploring GitHub, that’s really good. But the way how you are exploring GitHub is not correct.
So, here’s a guide to explore simple projects on GitHub.
You must follow the following steps (Those who have already created and account and are familiar with GitHub terms like Repository, Commit, Pull Request, Branches, etc. can skip these steps):
- Visit GitHub.
- Click on Sign Up (Or Sign In if you already have your account.)
- Fill the required detail in Sign Up.
- After completing your Sign Up process, you will visit your Dashboard, which looks something like this initially.
- Click on “Read the Guide”. A new page will open named “Hello World” which is a 10 minutes read. Make sure you leave this page by carefully understanding each and everything. (Yes, it will be quite difficult for the beginners initially to understand everything. No worries, you will soon understand everything.)
- Go back to your Dashboard. Now, click on “Start a Project.” Verify your email, if asked.
- You will be redirected to Create a New Repository. Follow instructions and hey, congrats, you just created a new repository of yours.
- After creating your new repository, make your hands dirty. Explore everything on that page. Google for something that you didn’t get. Don’t hesitate to go back to Hello World: Read the Guide page.
- Congrats again! You just learnt the basic of GitHub.
Now, the real job begins: Searching for projects for beginners. (Though I will suggest you to search for a simple codes in your preferred language at the beginning.)
- Visit GitHub’s Code Search.
- Search for your desired code. Here, I will type “pattern” and will hit “Search”. Next you will see a page something like this.
- Filter your result by changing Sort:Best Match to Sort:Recently updated and by choosing your desired language of all the languages listed.
- You will see a very long list of repositories. Check out each and every repository. I am sure you will find something useful that you will really understand and you will be a able to make commits on it. :)
- If you still didn’t find something that is for beginners? Try to change the search keyword and explore some more other projects. (Note: You can also search for “Hello World” ;) )
- Just remember. There are millions of such repositories, most of which are created by beginners like us. So, it is possible we can find some and by following this procedures.
- Also, do remember that to create your own repositories having very simple codes which beginners like you can commit. GitHub is not only about projects.
Happy Exploring. :)
0 comments