Trying to Keep Track of Your Code? Try GitHub

Many of us have probably ran into this situation. You write some microcontroller code and save it in different project files. A week later, you make some changes and overwrite the project files. A few days later, you make even more changes and realize that your code is buggy. Since you kept adding more and more changes to the code, figuring out what change caused the bug can be time consuming and frustrating.

To solve that problem, different developers have created Version Control Systems (VCS) which can manage the code more efficiently. A VCS provides repositories for your code and keeps track of  what changes were made, who made them and when. This  makes collaboration between developers more efficient and reliable. Moreover, each version of the code that you commit is saved in case you want to revert your code to a previous stage.  Some of the most popular VCS are Subversion (SVN), Git, CVS, Mercurial, LibreSource and Perforce, among others. They can be free, open-source or proprietary. 

The system I want to talk about is Git. Designed by Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux), Git is a classified as a distributed VCS. This means that the developers don't have to share a common repository to make code changes. Instead, developers have to make a copy of the repository into their own systems and merge it back in order to make the changes effective. 

So, what is Github? Github is an online repository hosting service based on Git with a much friendlier user interface than using Git through command line. The advantage of Github, is that it you can keep your repositories in their servers for free as long as you make them public. Otherwise, you can pay to have private repositories. Github also allows you to share code and collaborate with other developers. And for your protection, no changes can be made to your repository without your approval.

Besides a repository and code sharing site, Github is also a Social Network. It allows you to connect with other developers, follow their work. Github also helps you offering or looking for freelance work, and the repositories make excellent work portfolios for potential employers.

In conclusion, I really encourage you to use some sort of VCS to keep your code organized. Of all the systems currently available, I recommend Github since it is a free, offers a really simple user interface and allows you to collaborate with other developers as long as they are connected to the internet.