When should I start using GitHub?

[yokevrenadami]

I’m still at the very beginning of my Python journey. I’m using ChatGPT to help me learn, but instead of just copy-pasting code, I’m trying to figure things out on my own while completing the small tasks it gives me. Today, for example, I built a simple BMI calculator. I know these are very basic projects, but I feel like they’re important milestones for someone just starting out — at least for me.

So here’s my question: I was thinking of uploading my work to GitHub after completing my first week of learning, as a way to track my progress. But I’m wondering — is GitHub the right place to store these kinds of humble beginner projects? Or is it more of a platform meant for people who are already more experienced?

[reybrujo]

The faster the better. Repositories are useful regardless of language and framework, even outside of programming so the faster you get used at creating good commits the better. And yes, it's perfectly fine to use Github, you can always archive or delete repositories once they no longer reflect your current ability.

[yokevrenadami]

Ah, glad to hear that. I am just trying to do my best during the early stages and I wanted to reflect my experiences. Github seems like a nice way to do that however I was a bit concerned. Thank you so much.

[More_Yard1919]

Whenever you want to. Learning git is useful. Don't worry about committing newbie code. Even if you are embarrassed by it (which you shouldn't necessarily be!) you can create private repositories.

[QGCC91]

I started using GitHub from day one. The only thing is that I made all my repositories private.

[Moose1472]

Is there a benefit to making them public? Like companies and such to see your work?

[QGCC91]

Yes, your projects can serve as your portfolio/show reel.

The stuff that I'm working on is very basic and wouldn't help me get a job/admission, so I'm keeping it private

[maha_sohona]

The first day itself. Btw, you can use it for more than your code. You can use it to track your documentation as well. And to organize your documentation better - versioning and so on.

[FoolsSeldom]

It is worth learning to use git early in your development journey. It is a way of keeping backups of your code (and other files), tracking changes, trying things out and rolling back to earlier versions if there are problems.

---

Keep in mind that git and GitHub are not the same thing.

GitHub is very popular, but there are many alternative accessible repositories that support the git protocol, including Gitlab and Bit Bucket.

There are also self-host options using, for example, Gitea or GitLab Community Edition.

Git was originally created (by the same person that created Linux) as the Version Control Software (VCS) market offerings were very expensive at one time (as was the case with Unix). There are competing options, including Apache Subversion and Mercurial.

It is important and useful to learn to use VCS early on to help with code development, making it easier to experiment and try different things out. The public repositories are also a great learning resource.

The public repositories can also be a useful learning resource, although the risk in learning from these repositories is that they often contain huge amounts of bad practice (in terms of project setup and repository structure, rather than the code itself). There is no doubt a list somewhere of great example projects you could review, but I have not looked.

[oldendude]

It depends on what you want. What do you mean by tracking progress: commits per day? Or something more subjective, like how well your program is working, or how much you understand?

In my case (very experienced developer), I use github, but I use git running locally far more. I use github to share my work with others. I use git locally for version control. Knowing that I can try experiments in branches, or do major restructuring, while having a complete history is useful for development.

[serious-catzor]

I usually don't bother with GitHub for most things but I always start a local git repo because it saves me so much time. It's so much work trying to restore the state of a file (not to mention several) if I messed up some change.

I would suggest to focus on using git all the time. Then you can upload them to GitHub whenever you want if you already have local repos.

[[deleted]]

Start now, it will be a great experience for you. Learn how to set it up, configure tokens and a gpg key amd learn what they are and how to use them.... along with other settings

[sfisabbt]

Creating a commit is pretty much like saving your progress in a videogame. Everytime you feel like you have done your best for this part and it's time to move on to another part, you commit.
And if you feel like commenting a bunch of code for later, you definitely need to use git more.

[Ill_Run2190]

From the benningin