GrokGit Series: “Gitting Started with Git”

Well, I have been saying it for a while – I need to do more speaking at community events, so I finally agreed to start small and do a nugget for my local user group.

Why Speaking?

My thoughts are simply:

Pros

  • You need to understand things more intimately in order to be able to explain them.
  • The many iterations required to get the slides right reinforces the learning that took place to get the content on there to being with.
  • It’s great for confidence.
  • You can (hopefully) pass some useful knowledge on to the community and help them try new things/better themselves.
  • It’s a great icebreaker to meet new people (i.e. you are more likely to talk and engage with them if you have some subject matter to talk about).

Cons

  • It can be scary – it’s been ages since I stood up in front of people.
  • It can be time consuming trying to create the “perfect” slide deck.
  • You can look/sound like an ass.
  • You give false information and/or confuse people even more.

… All of which can be sorted by me trying hard not to be a moron (no guarantees, no cash back!) :)

OK, So What Nugget?

I have recently decided to take more of a direct approach at getting to grips with Git. After a rather interesting session at Open Space Code in London, I came back highly motivated to crack it.

Since myself and others have experienced some pain at most parts of the learning process, I thought I would share some tips and guidance on how to get up and running with Git.

This nugget is the first of a series I hope to continue to help both you guys and myself get to grips with Git.

Please click the link below to download the slides from my SkyDrive.

I’ll upload others as soon as I have completed the talks (give me a change to review them based on feedback etc.)

As always, all feedback is very welcome – so please shout if you see anything you feel needs to be said!

Comments

  1. Ebru Cucen23 June 2009 at 00:06

    Wonderful! Thanks Rob!
    However, is it all good? No disadvantages? Is it secure?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rob Cooper23 June 2009 at 00:24

    Hey Ebru,

    Thanks for the comment!

    So far I have to be honest, I have not found any real disadvantages (other than the learning curve).

    The more I get to grips with it, the more I find how really fast it is to get stuff done. I think Linus and the team have done a great job on this - I'd rather focus on writing the code than messing around with versioning it.

    That said, I am still learning - so watch this space, there may be some bump in the road being reported later :)

    Can I ask "secure in what sense?" - It's a file based repository so I assume (not tested) NTFS perms can be set on your local repositories to secure accesss. And with remote repositories (post/slides coming later) you need a encryption key to commit.. If that doesn't answer you Q, please do shout! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Terry Brown23 June 2009 at 00:31

    Nicely written mate, and a great intro to the tech. I'll have to have a look and see how it fares with regard to SVN (our source control of choice since ditching VSS approximately a year ago) though coming (back in the day) from a Unix background, I tend not to fear the command line.

    Thanks!
    @terry_brown

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rob Cooper23 June 2009 at 00:56

    Hey Terry,

    I intend to continue with the other aspects (merging, remote repositories etc) over the coming weeks as well as a few odd posts on tips and tricks etc.

    Be sure to check them out - would love to hear the "SVN flipside" (I am not a SVN Guru at all).

    I have traditionally been a GUI-lover, but I wanted to make an effort to get to grips with the command line (since it is faster). Not regretting the decision at all.. I have normally committed before I can reach for the mouse and find the button - so if you are good with it, then I would definitely recommend it.

    That said, I know some people are GUI advocates, and future posts will also feature the same processes using TortoiseGit.

    Thanks for the feedback!

    ReplyDelete

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