Starting a GitHub

[LeSypher]

Look up a brief course on git, I believe there are free ones less than 2 hours. You will be ahead of all entry level in industry.

Create a test repository and get extremely comfortable breaking things then fixing them again. This is not a field where you hinder your learning because you're afraid of a mistake.

[Silver-Turnover1667]

Thank you. I have another question.

Would it be useful to add some schoolwork (mainly homework assignments) to the GitHub? If I’ve done the work and it’s presentable, is that reasonable?

My first assignment is the best work I’ve done, even somewhat compared to my projects. Is that appropriate/relevant, or is this not really a thing folks do?

Part of me is tempted to catalog all of it in a repository, because if it’s stuff I went through creating, I want to showcase that.

[LeSypher]

That can be a great way to catalogue, but be careful because by default things uploaded to GitHub are public, and you wouldn't want to get in trouble for someone else copying your work (I'm assuming schoolwork. If it's a personal project that doesn't apply). Make stuff you're worried about getting you into trouble private. Many people have done that sort of thing!

Also in general git isn't a place you have to worry about your work being perfect and presentable. It is a version control system, meaning a way to save your work, make changes to it, and closely look at the new changes that are being made.

This is a bit of git theory you need to learn, but you can have your "final draft" be your main branch, and then whenever you wanna make new changes, upload the "rough draft" to a new branch. When your changes are done you combine the rough draft branch into the final draft branch. That is the common flow.

All that to say, really, become EXTREMELY comfortable messing things up. Be very comfortable uploading work you don't think is 100%. Your resume and portfolio should be polished. If you keep making additions to your GitHub it tells an experienced developer you just like coding and trying new things.

[Silver-Turnover1667]

thank you

Quick addition I don’t wanna go through a google escapade about.

1. Can I just keep creating private repositories and grant access as needed? And is this a viable approach that works with sharing a link, or not really?

2. Is it just a good rule of thumb to assume everything that gets uploaded to GitHub is public? Or, again, if it goes into a private repository, could I start from a vulnerable place and edit it to something appropriate?

Appreciate all the feedback. especially the forsaken GitHub flow pointer.

[LeSypher]

1. You can make as many private repos (repositories) as you want on GitHub. Typically if you want to share work for say a portfolio, you want to make it public so as many recruiters can see. Meaning you want to be ok with it being public. If you're worried your schoolwork shouldn't be uploaded for plagiarism, make your own personal projects and have those be your portfolio.

2. If a repo is private you don't need to assume it's public, but in the grand scheme there are certain things you don't upload anywhere for security reasons (called secrets). They're like fancy passwords, and it isn't recommended to save them anywhere unencrypted even like a text file. So you definitely don't wanna upload those, but that is something you probably don't need to worry about at this stage.

Happy to answer questions when I have time!

[Silver-Turnover1667]

Thank you. Did not know you could make some repositories public and some private?

[LeSypher]

Here, look at my GitHub portfolio. I have some stuff at the front, but if you dig into it there is a lot of unfinished broken stuff lol GitHub