Demystifying Git, Why is it Popular, and How to Use it?

If you have been involved in a Windows application development you have probably heard about the Git version control system and GitHub which works with Git to allow developers to host and manage their code. In this video from the recently concluded DelphiCon 2023, we will learn more about this popular repository hosting service. Rich Dudley will help us understand the concept behind it, how it managed to become extremely popular, and how exactly it works.

What is a version control system and what is Git?

Dudley will dive into the history of the Version control system which can be traced back to 1973 when SCCS (Source Code Control System) was first launched. It is acknowledged as one of the first effective version control systems. Generally, the main purpose of a version control system is to help developers track and manage changes to a software project’s code. This is extremely important, especially when working on a big project. Instead of editing the official source code of a program, a version control system allows developers to safely work and make changes through ‘branching’ and ‘merging’ which will be thoroughly discussed in this video.

What else can I learn about version control systems and Git?

We will also learn the differences between a centralized version control system and a distributed version control system such as Git. Created by Linux inventor Linus Torvalds, Git is a distributed version control system designed to allow independent development and easy patching. It makes the entire codebase and history available on every developer’s computer. Compare this to the similarly named GitHub, on the other hand, which is not a version control system but a web-based service for hosting git repositories.

Thanks to tons of useful features and a developer-friendly design, pricing, and generous free options, GitHub is responsible for why Git is popular as it is today. Rich will also demonstrate the ‘Fork and Pull’ model where multiple developers working on an open, shared project make their own contributions by sharing a main repository and pushing changes after granted pull requests by integrator users. Here, he will show how Fork and Pull method works using GitHub via the git command line.

The video concludes with a Q&A session with Jim Mckeeth and Rich Dudley, answering queries from the attendees. To learn more about GitHub, feel free to watch the video below.