nicar-github-101

Welcome to Github 101 at NICAR. Here is some information that you might find useful.

Terms

Github: Github is a place to collaborate and share code. It also allows for source control. Here are three reasons you might want to use Github:

• Learn and build off of other people's work.
• Share your work with the world.
• Track changes.

Repository: nicar-github-101 is an example of a repository, it typically contains code and text explaining what that code does.

README: This is a README. It is an explanation of why the repository was created. It could also contain a longer methodology. For instance, the README for my figure skating analysis walks you through the process of acquiring and analyzing the data. READMEs are typically written in Markdown, which is why the file extension is .md.

Ways to Github

There are basically three options for creating and updating Github accounts.

1. Online interface. (What we're going to look at today.)
2. Github Desktop
3. Command Line

Commands

Clone: Make a copy of the repository so that you can either have a personal copy or make changes to it. (Or both!)

Commit: Make a set of temporary changes permanent. (i.e. After you've edited a file.) Commit's typically have commit messages that explain why you made the changes.

Pull Request: How you submit your changes to other people's projects.

Examples of Newsrooms with Github Repositories

1. BuzzFeed News
2. ProPublica
3. Washington Post (The police shootings data is on Github.)
4. USA Today
5. FiveThirtyEight (Not sure if it's being updated.)

Hint: A lot of newsrooms have Github accounts and you can probably guess their username.