r/learnprogramming • u/__lilithxx • 16h ago

Help wanted Tutorial for dummies

Help please.I don't know anything about github but I would like to learn how to use it since people are always posting resources?(idk If that's what they're called) that would be really helpful to me. The thing is just looking at the site gets me confused sometimes it's like words don't have meaning anymore lol(English is not my first language). How and what should I start learning first so I at least can use the things posted on the site? Should I learn basic coding first?

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u/aqua_regis 16h ago

Just an hour before your post: https://redd.it/1x7ieni

Also, FAQ here

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u/Arsonist07 15h ago

There are some interactive web games to teach Git but I haven’t used them in almost a decade so I can’t say which is best.

Also Git is the program that we use for version control, Git Hub is a repository website but you can also use Bit Bucket or your own server if you like.

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u/SchemeWestern3388 12h ago

Git is version control software, to enable individuals and teams to work on a code base together and not screw it all up. Github is a web based extension of that, to make it even easier for strangers to contribute. Git can get very complicated, but you don’t need that functionality, it sounds like. You just need to learn how to get the code on your machine. If you go to the green “code” button on the repository’s page and select “download zip”, you’ll get the code, no need to know git. 

Now you need to turn that code into something useful for you, and how to do that can vary a lot. Do you have any examples to share? And what OS are you on? Some programming knowledge is very helpful here, but not a huge amount. You might find yourself staring at arcane error messages and the like, but Google or AI should be able to point you in the right direction.

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u/SchemeWestern3388 12h ago

Edit;

As a side note; Git was written by Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux), because he (correctly) saw that any other options sucked ass. It was hosting Linux development three weeks after he started writing it. Since then, it has allowed so much collaboration and progress in software development it’s ridiculous. It is truly one of the unsung workhorses of the modern world. 

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u/No_Discount_1199 3h ago

Make a repo, add a text file, and commit it. Then mess the file up on purpose and revert it, that loop teaches you more than any tutorial.

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u/SwiftQuest 53m ago

you don't need to learn coding first just to use stuff people post. on any repo page, scroll down past the file list to the README, that's the part written for humans and it usually says what the thing is and how to use it. the file list above it you can mostly ignore at first. if the README says something like "see Releases", look on the right side of the page for Releases, that's where ready-to-use downloads live, so you don't have to touch the code at all. once that feels normal, then learning basic git (clone, commit, push) makes a lot more sense.