“Git” on with it!
This week in class we installed, configured, and operated the git version control system. A version control system is an extremely useful tool on a software development project. It ensures that two or more people do no modify the same file at the same time. If this does happen, the software presents a conflict which can then be resolved.
Many prior versions can be backed up. It is easy to return to a previous version. The git commands are English friendly, and are similar to other console commands.
We downloaded a pair of security keys that git uses to authenticate users of a repository. We configured git to identify us with our name and email. We cloned an existing repository that Professor Wurst had set up for us. We then practiced editing files, checking status, and committing the files to the repository.
This was a good experience for me. The command line interface seems to make file transfer much faster. A great, unique feature of git is its branching model. Git will allow you to have multiple local branches that can be entirely independent of each other.
Once you have a Git repository, either one that you set up on your own server, or one hosted someplace, you can tell Git to either push any data that you have that is not in the remote repository up, or you can ask Git to fetch differences down from the other repo.
From the reading I have done, it appears that git is a superior VCS over others like Subversion, CVS, or Mercurial.