GitHub is a very popular repository hosting service for projects. It provides a graphical user interface (GUI) to its users. For example, we can open a GitHub repository and allow people to contribute to it. Basically, it is a platform which provides users an opportunity to collaborate with each other and solve different software problems. GitHub has more than 65 million software develpers working on their platform. If someone has already written a great script and makes it public then anyone can request an access to it. Once the request is accepted, they can also contribute to the project.
It is a very democratic type of process, where anyone can propose a project, and anyone can contribute. GitHub is also used to resolve software related issues. Many issues are daily solved by software professionals. GitHub offers the software developers a convenience to create a copy of their code and make changes to it. It helps in not generating more issues with the already built software. Once the changes are made and approved by all team members the copy of the code is merged with the original code. Ultimately, everyone using the code has all of the newly updated features.
What is a GitHub Repository?
A GitHub repository is an online file storage server. On GitHub it is possible to upload a file, request file access, ask a question and comment on an issue. Files uploaded on GitHub are automatically stored inside the “secure folder” of a repository. This means that anyone who downloads the file or opens the repository can see the files. The files can be made public by uploading them on GitHub. It generates a link. Anyone who clicks on the link will have access to the files present in the repository.
Features of GitHub
Some prominent features of GitHub are;
1. Easy Project Management
GitHub provides an opportunity to project managers and developers to coordinate, track and update their code without any hustle.
2. Increased Safety with Packages
The packages can either be published privately within the team or publicly for the open-source community. The packages can then be used or reused by downloading them from the GitHub.
3. Effective Team Management
GitHub also helps all the team members to remain well-coordinated with each other. Moderation tools like issue and pull request helps the team to focus on the code.
4. Improved Code Writing
With the help of GitHub, the quality of code has significantly improved because the code is available to everyone. Also, everyone can contribute to the code. Suggestions can also be made and discussed among the team members.
5. Increased Code Safety
GitHub also provides a lot of tools to ensure the safety of code. Through the tools the code is thoroughly analysed, and vulnerabilities are removed to make the code secure as much as possible.
6. Easy Code Hosting
There are millions of code present in repositories on the GitHub. Each repository has specific tools to make the code hosting and releasing easier.
Conclusion
There are also many alternatives available to GitHub. Some of the worth mentioning are GitLab, Bitbucket, Source Forge and Launchpad. Each one of the mentioned alternatives have their own positive and negative aspects. But GitHub and GitLab are the most well-known open-source platforms in the world.
