Deciding where to start or what programming languages to learn as a new developer can be slightly overwhelming at first. However, whichever direction one decides to take whether it’s the Front-end route, Back-end route, or both (Full-stack), GitHub is a name that will come up often. GitHub is a free and Open Source tool that is used by students, experienced developers, and anyone who generally handles code and wants to share it and work on it with others. It doesn’t matter how small, big, simple, or complex your code is GitHub makes it easy to store and automate your software development projects.
On GitHub, you can store your code in a central location called a repository. You can have as many repositories on your GitHub profile as you like and work on them from anywhere, anytime. You can also contribute code to other developers’ projects, a term known as Open Source contribution. Contributing to Open Source projects allowed me to communicate with and learn from developers with more experience than myself; my confidence and ability to read other people's code grew; and it is a good environment to get feedback on your own work and how to improve it.
Getting started
Step 1: Navigate to the GitHub website
Step 2: Sign up (or sign in if you already have one) to create a new account.
Step 3: Enter your preferred email address to associate your new account with, and click continue.
Step 4: Create a new unique password, click continue.
Step 5: Enter a username, if your preferred username is not available, enter a new one, and click to continue.
Step 6: Verify your account by completing the reCAPTCHA.
Step 7: Check your email for your launch code & enter it where prompted…
Step 8: You can choose to personalize your GitHub at this point or skip to personalize later.
Step 9: And that’s all it takes to create your own GitHub account.
Once your account is created, you can start to personalize your profile by adding a profile picture or logo of your choice and adding organizations and teams you are already collaborating with.
Thanks for reading…happy coding!