Simple GitHub to act as a stand-in for svn

Here's the dead-simplest way I've navigated for those who may not be git-savvy. Moreso than svn, GitHub publishes a nice GitHub Desktop client that is pretty uniform across Mac/PC. At its most basic, ignoring the details of forking and merging, it's a user friendlier version of svn

 - Matt

Set up Git

Make a github account (not sure if you have one from Alice's attempt already) https://github.com/

Then, I recommend getting the desktop application for Mac/Windows https://desktop.github.com/ Signing in with this should ease the one-time hassle of setting up your git identity on here and tying it to your internet account.

Here is a concise summary of the important terminal commands if you want to go that route. I thought commits/pushes were intuitive, though setting up repositories was more confusing. https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/git/commands.htm

Make your repository

Now from the desktop client: File>Add Local Repository Select your desired folder (and click Yes, Create and Add)

At the top of your window, there should be two categories, "Uncommitted Changes" and "History", go to Uncommitted Changes. Make sure the files you want to track are checked, add a commit message, then click Commit to Master.

Now click Publish/Sync at the top right (it is labeled Publish the initial commit, and Sync thereafter)

Track changes

Once your repository is set up, through the desktop interface, "commit to Master" in order to save changes on your computer. Then "Sync" to push it to the repository housed on GitHub's servers.

Note: Ignoring the ability to "fork" and "merge", which seem to be handy when collaborating on large software projects, the biggest difference between git/svn is that there is a secondary "push" command that sends these changes out into the ether.

Add collaborators

Navigate to your specific repository:

https://github.com/"user"/"repo"/settings

On the left, click collaborators, and add your lab mate :)