git init...and get in it! (May 2013)

A slightly updated slide deck, presented at Rails Girls Berlin's 1st Anniversary workshop.

Transcript

1. git init...And Get In It! How I taught myself Rails and got a programming job in under a year Sunday, May 5, 13
2. About Me • Joan Wolkerstorfer • joanwolk on twitter, github, & stackoverflow • gitinit.wordpress.com Sunday, May 5, 13
3. Overview • My programming story • How I made it happen • Resources and how to use them Sunday, May 5, 13
4. I learned to code and got a programming job in under a year. Sunday, May 5, 13
5. A few years ago, I was a professional stage manager. Sunday, May 5, 13
6. Now I’m a developer at mediapeers and a coach for Rails Girls Berlin. Sunday, May 5, 13
7. 2011 Sunday, May 5, 13
8. 2011 Sunday, May 5, 13
9. I owe Mr. Hartl so many beers. This is the secret of my success. Sunday, May 5, 13
10. 2011 Sunday, May 5, 13
11. My first job was to redesign this site. Sunday, May 5, 13
12. Sunday, May 5, 13
13. 2011 Sunday, May 5, 13
14. 2011 Sunday, May 5, 13
15. At Upstream, I wrote the coapps application, Expiring Day Passes, and Quickcharge Sunday, May 5, 13
16. 2011 Sunday, May 5, 13
17. 2011 Sunday, May 5, 13
18. • Written for true beginners • Introduces and uses git, GitHub and heroku • Detailed explanations of all elements • Useful even for experienced coders • Full book for free • Videos and PDFs can be bought to support it Sunday, May 5, 13
19. What is git? Sunday, May 5, 13
20. What is version control? • Version control: keeps track of what the project looked like for its whole history • Distributed version control: many people can work on the same project at the same time without problems • Use it now to: • Share on GitHub and post on heroku • Build good habits from the start Sunday, May 5, 13
21. What is git? • Commit: Take a snapshot of your code • Repository: All your snapshots neatly arranged in one album • Most common version control in the Ruby community: lots of help is out there! • More information: • git-scm.com (official git site) • progit.org (a full book online, plus a blog) Sunday, May 5, 13
22. What is GitHub? • Store your git repository for free online • Explore other people’s code • Watch: get a feed of updates to the repository • Fork: copy the repository so you can play with it • Collaborate on code • Pull request: ask the owner to add your changes • Review code • Find help with someone’s code • Issues: Find or submit tickets about a problem • Wiki: Some repositories have a wiki Sunday, May 5, 13
23. What is heroku? • Hosting for Ruby/Rails sites using git: put your code out there for the world! • Free for small projects • Easy to scale up as projects grow Sunday, May 5, 13
24. But how can I find help when I’m working alone? Sunday, May 5, 13
25. • stackoverflow.com • Rails documentation • guides.rubyonrails.org • github repository • heroku devcenter Sunday, May 5, 13
26. • Search it with Google, not the search field on the site, e.g. • site:stackoverflow.com rails passwords Stack Overflow Tips • As with any search, try adjusting your search terms if you don’t find what you want right away • If you can’t find it, ask it! Sunday, May 5, 13
27. Rails Documentation • api.rubyonrails.org • apidock.com/rails • railsapi.com • My personal favorite • Defaults to most current versions • Easy to choose specific older versions • Shows Ruby and Rails results together Sunday, May 5, 13
28. Rails Guides Tips • There are more guides on the main page than are listed in the index! • “In Progress” guides are still great help Sunday, May 5, 13
29. GitHub Tips • Read the readme • Read the wiki, if there is one • Search the issues to see if someone else had the same problem • Submit your own issue if you still have a problem Sunday, May 5, 13
30. Heroku Tips • devcenter.heroku.com to browse help topics • Use Google to search the docs, e.g., • site:devcenter.heroku.com logs Sunday, May 5, 13
31. Other useful tools Sunday, May 5, 13
32. • editors – vim, emacs, TextMate, Sublime, etc. • rubular.com – Regular expressions editor • Markdown – used to format comments on GitHub, and in various other places • http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax • pow.cx – Local server tool (Mac only) Development Tools Sunday, May 5, 13
33. • Twitter Bootstrap (twitter.github.com/bootstrap) – CSS default settings • hslpicker.com – Color picker tool • visualmess.com – Design basics Design Tools Sunday, May 5, 13
34. • RailsTutorial.org is fantastic • Help is available online • Dive into documentation • Be confident • Just code! In Conclusion Sunday, May 5, 13