GitHub has emerged as the single platform for the developers to store their development work in the repository. Million of developers across the world rely on this platform to save their work securely for version control using Git.
GitHub is the largest programming repository in the world. Currently, according to GitHub, there are more than 100 million online repositories, 31 million developers and more than 2.1 million companies (different code) on GitHub, which places it as the largest developer platform for internet users. These numbers caught the attention of Microsoft, who bought GitHub a few months ago for $7.5 billion (raising blisters in a community that looked for alternatives). However, it seems that the numbers on the platform continue to grow as Microsoft does not intend, at the moment, to change things.
It does not matter if you are a novice or you are a veteran developer, on the platform, there is a space for you. To make the entry simpler, we go with a series of GitHub tricks so you know to master in GitHub platform.
Table of Contents
Prioritize your projects and follow their development
The first advice for GitHub is something you can apply to almost anything: prioritize what you should do. Having clear the steps in the projects is something vital in any task, and in GitHub, it is simple to have things more or less controlled. Kanban boards are one of the best ways to control a project and a workflow, and something that came, similarly, to GitHub in 2016. GitHub was updated with the project tool that allows creating boards to organize follow up on a repo.
In a Kanban board, you can point and organize the priorities of a project, something very interesting. You can add problems, notes, track progress and filter by subject. If you want a direct link to the GitHub boards, you can see it here.
Use the tags or labels
Something that will always be, ALWAYS, on GitHub are problems. When working with code, it is something that you are going to be exposed to and that you will have to solve. If you do not use the board from the previous point, another of the best tips to use GitHub is to use tags.
The use of labels allows you to have an overview of what happens in the project, but it is really useful, especially if you are working on an open source project. It since it will allow everyone who enters to collaborate to see without having to search too the key points of the project or those in which an extra hand is needed to polish a certain process.
Use the console
To work with open source, the console is an essential tool. GitHub has some pretty interesting interfaces, but the command line is still the best to be more efficient. And that is, everything stays away from few ”hits” of the keyboard, and the result is shortcuts that will save time.
Through hub, you have a series of commands that allow you to navigate more quickly both by GitHub and by the projects. However, if you need something else, you can access here to use another series of utilities.
Not only just code but also 3D on GitHub
When we think of GitHub, many of us can imagine it as a Matrix, infinite lines of code that are happening. However, there is something very useful in GitHub, the 3D File Viewer, a section where you can see and render 3D files with the .stl extension.
From the 3D File Viewer, you can see the project, modify parts of it, modify the view, zoom and change the perspective. This is one of the useful features if you are creating something in 3D and you need a quick look.
Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts are always useful, both in games and when developing something or writing codes. Shortcuts save a lot of time navigating with the mouse to the specific point, and when we get used to using them, they are a marvel.
In GitHub, there are also keyboard shortcuts and you can find them by pressing the combination Shift+? anytime. A window with the best keyboard shortcuts for GitHub appears like the one we left above.
Create task lists
If you are involved in a project in which you must meet certain points per day, instead of resorting to external applications, such as Todoist, why do not you do task lists on GitHub? It is one of the best tricks of GitHub because in a simple way you can create a few lines in which are the different tasks that you must accomplish in a session. For example:
To create the list of tasks on GitHub, all you have to do is go to ”New Issue” and, in the field of writing, create a space between two brackets and hit “Submit new issue”. So it will come out with a slightly more refined view, and you can not only mark the completed ones but see the progress.
Shorten links with GitHub
The last trick of GitHub, although more than a trick is a tip to pass GitHub links, that you can use as a system to shorten the links.
In the network, there are several ”shorteners” of links that help us not have to send a long URL. But if you want to send links in a more orderly and elegant, you can use the GitHub shortener (better than other platforms that you have to register). You can use the link shortener of GitHub through this link. And, with this, our list of GitHub tricks ends to start programming on the platform.
