ga-wdi-boston/git-practice

Git Basics: Practice

Required Reading

Read the entire Comparing Workflows tutorial from Atlassian, except for the "Gitflow Workflow" section, which is optional.

It's a solid overview of all of the commands that we've learned and an introduction to common patterns that developers use to save their work with Git. Pay particular attention to the "Feature Branch Workflow" section. It's okay if you don't understand the workflows themselves. For now, focus on how the commands are being used and how the changes are visualized. This should take about an hour.

Required Tutorial

If you have any questions during these tutorials, then review your class notes and our talk repositories. To do that, navigate to the General Assembly WDI Boston organization on GitHub and use the search box to find our Git repositories.

CodeSchool's Try Git

First, let's review the basic Git commands using CodeSchool's excellent, free Try Git tutorial. This should take somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes to complete.

Optional Tutorial

Learn Git Branching

We'll focus on visualizing Git commands, especially branching, by working on Learn Git Branching in this tutorial. Complete all of the exercises in the following sequences:

• Main > Introduction Sequence, levels 1 and 2
• Main > Ramping Up, all levels

• Remote > Push & Pull, levels 1 through 6
• Remote > To Origin and Beyond, levels 1 and 3

Each level in Learn Git Branching will explain the concepts that you are expected to use to solve the level. Think of these as instructions and don't skip them!

You'll have an interactive shell to complete each challenge, help buttons that display the goal, and a visualization of what the end goal should look like.

This will take longer. If you spend more than an hour on this, then please let a consultant know. Some of the Atlassian Git Tutorials may be good references if you get stuck.

Optional Bonus

If you need more review, then continue by working through the free chapter of CodeSchool's Interactive Git Tutorial.

You may also want to practice targeted review with Learn Version Control with Git, one of the best intermediate references available for free online. If you're not satisfied with how well you understand a topic, then scan the table of contents and give yourself a set amount of time to review it. After time is up, move on! This practice is called timeboxing and it is a great way to avoid getting off track.

Finally, review some of the great visuals provided at A Visual Git Reference. These diagrams are more detailed and offer annotations that may help you understand how Git works. They also make a great reference for later, especially if you don't want to replay Learn Git Branching again.

Required Response

Once you have completed all of the required readings and the required tutorials, checkout to a new branch, response, and answer the questions in response.md. Don't hesitate to add anything else that you want to let us know about your experience with this practice or the course so far. After you've answered the questions, create a pull request with your response.

License

1. All content is licensed under a CC­BY­NC­SA 4.0 license.
2. All software code is licensed under GNU GPLv3. For commercial use or alternative licensing, please contact [email protected].

git-practice's Issues

Allocate more time for the Atlassian tutorials

#21

response

I finished through the first three of To Origin and Beyond. I had trouble doing git visually, but I'm super-not a visual learner. GitHug was more helpful to me.
Mostly I learn well by verbally restating my understanding of a topic, or by physically writing it down.
I found the comparing workflows document helpful, although there was some vocabulary that I'm not 100% clear on.
In git, I'm comfortable cloning, adding, and committing. I'm pretty unclear about what a detached Head state is, or what it means to move the head, master, or branch around in the visualization. I think it will become more clear as I use it in real life.

Add note and screenshot about solution to git branching tutorial

#21

Question Responses

• How do you learn best?
  I like to practice and then learn. It's difficult to have a lot of abstract ideas and vocabulary thrown at me all at once and then do work involving those ideas. Generally speaking I like to learn from doing.
• Which resources from this document helped you the most?
  I liked this resource the best: http://pcottle.github.io/learnGitBranching/
• How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses? On a scale of 1-10 I would say a 8. There are a few concepts I don't fully comprehend.
• Other
  I am pretty overwhelmed already. Today's javascript lesson was incredibly difficult for me to comprehend. It seems like things keep snowballing for me. Once I'm slightly lost, I just keep digging myself a deeper and deeper hole. I'm a bit anxious about falling behind to a point where I am unable to keep up. My comprehension on certain tasks is so low right now I can't even formulate proper questions to move me forward because I need to start from the very beginning.

Response

1. I learn best by doing a lot of practice. I really want to retain everything that is teached in class but I feel like I need to sometimes slow down and review the work slowly. But the class goes just at the right pace.
2. The resource that helped the most was the try git link that was provided but I still feel like I need to practice more.
3. I am pretty confident with the workflow of the git commands for learning how to use git in just 3 days is pretty amazing imo :D. The cool thing is that the instructors make sure that everyone is ready to move on before proceeding or they will get to you after a lesson.

Response - First Practice

Loved the first day! Was nice to start off with things we were exposed to already in the precourse work, and to go into it in more detail, and get more practice.

I find that putting things into practice helps me learn best, ideally along with a list of steps to follow. For instance I think a lot of the confusion with the GitHub forking practice today could have been helped with a list of steps to follow.

For the git-basics-practice document, the practice websites, along with the visuals and explanations, were helpful; though I feel that in the long run the written/visual guides will prove more handy. The Learn Git Branching site was helpful in visually depicting git branching, however, in the last Remote section, I thought that it was a little too abstract and far removed from real-world development (though I could be wrong about that) to the point of being unhelpful.

After completing the tasks today and the practice this evening, I feel pretty comfortable with git commands, though I'm sure nothing can beat completing actual projects using git.

Response

I learn best by processing new concepts on my own first, and then once I feel I have an initial grasp on the concept I am ready to discuss with others to draw out the nuances. I also think my visual memory is better than audio, but I process audio information faster than reading.

I think the Atlasssian workflow document helped me the most.

As for comfort level I think I'm at a 3 out of 5. I didn't quite finish the second learn git branching tutorial. I feel somewhat comfortable with the various workflows. And I am aware of all the git branching and merge commands. Need some more practice on when to apply them. And I still need more time on the HEAD concept.

Response

I learn best through interactive or hands on exercises that are explained in small chunks through out the exercise

The Atlassian reading was very helpful for explaining Git workflows. Normally, an Interactive tutorials like http://pcottle.github.io/learnGitBranching/ would be my preferred method of learning, but that particular resource was buggy.

I am more comfortable with Git workflow after reading the Atlassian text and doing the tutorials, but I will need to do it a few more time in class to fully understand some aspects (e.g. merge, rebase, fetch).

First Reflection Response

1. I learn best by seeing things visually and by actually doing it (like coding along and labs).
2. I think the learn git branching exercise was the most helpful for me because i could visually see what was going to happen when putting in a specific command, and then was able to try it out myself right after.
3. I would say i'm about a 4 out of 5 for comfort on the workflow. I understand everything for the most part, but I think once i use it more i'll feel more comfortable about it.

Response

I learn best by fooling around with the code. I find that I need a little time to just look at a code and try to figure it out without a verbal explanation for a bit. Thus this afternoon was a bit difficult for me. It's a lot of specific jargon to take in. I'm ok with the concepts and can usually break down a piece of code to get the general idea of what it does. The actual creation of code is proving much more of a struggle.
The reading from Atlasssian was very useful.
I was feeling pretty confident with github until the homework tonight. It has increased my knowledge in some areas (moving the HEAD, and rebasing), while confusing me in others (moving branches in particular).

Response

I have enjoyed class so far because I am excited to learn web development. I can't say that I am comfortable by any means but I have faith in the system and myself that things will eventually click and make sense more easily. It is all new to me but sometimes it takes me thinking back to a couple of weeks before class started when I really didn't know anything. 3 weeks later I am getting comfortable with git, I am writing inside the terminal and in Sublime and doing very basic coding. So looking back to the beginning of September when I didn't even know what a terminal was...I think I have come a long way. There has been progress. It's like hiking a mountain. You don't feel like you have gone very high until you turn around and see the view and realize that you have moved up. All you think you feel is the pain of hiking.

How do you learn best?

I am visual learner that needs to see multiple examples using everyday people, places, or things. I have to create a picture in my head of it and animate it to see it work.

Which resources from this document helped you the most?

The Learn Git Branching was very good. I like how it tells you how many entries it takes to solve it letting you know that there is a more streamlined way of doing it. That is helpful.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?

Like I was saying above, I am always uncomfortable with what I am learning even if I am executing it correctly. I think I can execute the git commands that are needed but I sometimes forget the order in which to do it or skip a step. Example: Fork, clone, branch, checkout. Sometimes I forget to checkout the branch and find myself still in "Master." Just something that I need to keep doing enough times until it becomes second nature.

All in all, it has been a true head-first dive into a new career. It is a roller coaster of emotions but having been to an actual boot-camp, I know what it felt like to graduate after all those roller coaster rides of failures and accomplishments. It is a breakdown and build-up process. Eventually I know I will be moving forward with confidence.

I really enjoy the instructors. Each has a different personality and I think that is very important and refreshing. It's a great mix because in the seats there is a "Jeff style learner" there is an "Antony style learner" , etc. It's a great mix of ages, backgrounds, and interests.

Looking forward to being completely confused tomorrow.

Git practice required response

The course is going well so far. I think learning the concepts takes some times but with practice it can be learned. One thing that I think would improve the course is to learn git in stages. Teach whats required for the beginning of the course. Let us grasp it and master that and then introduce remotes. I think we all got really confused once we started working with Jeff on the two terminals without fully understanding the basic concepts of git first. Other than that I walked into this course with expectations and they have been met and am excited to continue on.

How do you learn best?

I am a 100% a do-er and not a watcher. I think most people these days are. learning a lot of the coding by doing it along with the teacher is helpful and then applying it on my own also helps me learn from my struggles.

Which resources from this document helped you the most?

The resource that helped me the most were the two visual tutorials.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?

I would say that I am pretty confident in my ability to use git for the things we have done so far. Maybe once we start delving deeper into remotes and such I may need a little more practice but I'm sure at this point I could get through it with minimal troubles.

Add note about vocabulary, and refer students to diagrams

Previously:

Add vocabulary and explanatory diagram for how to read a graph for git branching tutorial (what is a commit? a branch? a detached head? etc.)

git tutorial homework

The workflow tutorial describing the small project team making, pushing, and managing concurrent changes and the exact git commands they are using at different points was very helpful.

The section learn git branching where it describes the commands & showed them graphically as the commands are run and follow it with an exercise we did was extremely valuable. Helped me better understand branching, HEAD positioning and actual command structure. In this section the remote branching and pushing local branches is still very, very perplexing to me. Using git branch -f and git push place is still beyond. Did not complete the last 4 exercises in Origin and Beyond. Did help a great deal with getting basic git fetch, git pull --rebase, and overall understanding of moving around branches with git checkout. Also do not understand why one would ever use detached HEADs.

Those were the 2 tutorials front which learned the most, but the others such codeschool filled in some blanks & fundamental concepts.

Git Basics: Practice Response

Having tried to reach myself programming on my own, I'm confident that I learn best in the classroom based on today alone. The "I code, we code, you code" approach seems like it will work well for me.

I had to spend more than an hour on the "Learn Git Branching" tutorial. I would say that after that exercise, I'm more confused about Git than I thought I was at the end of class today. The relationship to the visuals and what we did in class today is not really clicking with me. Perhaps it would've been helpful to go over one or two of these examples in class. The General Assembly WDI Boston GitHub documentation helped me the most when trying to understand these topics.

I'm pretty comfortable with the Git forking workflow that we practiced in class today, but confused about the nitty gritty of branching as it was explained in the "Learn Git Branching" tutorial.

Let students know of tools in Learn Git Branching Tutorial

Let students know of show solutions, reset, and other functions that are available with this tutorial. It would have been invaluable and helpful to be aware of those.

Response Grace

I learn best from hearing discussions and visual representations. I find myself retaining really well anything that was drawn out for me. I can replay the steps in my head from the diagram.

Additional reading material helps me feel confident. When I keep hearing new stuff all the time I panic that I may be lagging behind and that may distract me from listening to the content being presented. Having things I can go over to be sure I feel confident I understand helps.

The resources from this document that I loved the most was: Atlassian document and the Code academy exercise. This really helps in practicing and setting up a great pace. Would love to have that for the rest of the concepts.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses? I feel comfortable with the workflow. The more I practice the more the concepts get clearer and I stop skipping steps or making obvious errors.

Response

The course has been going well for me so far. I feel the pace, though picking up gradually, has been reasonable and good for my transition into the program. The lessons have been informative, and though some of it has been review from the pre-course work, I feel that I have learned a great deal so far.

How do you learn best?

• I learn best from doing. I find demonstrations to be helpful to build a baseline, but I feel that the bulk of my learning experience comes from hands on work. I have also found that visuals are a good learning aid for me. (such as when Jeff was illustrating how branches work in git.)

Which resources from this document helped you the most?

• I'll be completely honest about the fact that I did not get to everything. I found the Atlassian reading to be very informative. I plan to utilize the rest of the resources soon to strengthen my understanding of Git, it was just poor time planning on my part. I am also on level 26 of GitHug, and have found that to be a helpful challenge.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?

• I'm getting more comfortable with Git everytime I use it. I am confident with adding to the staging area, committing changes, cloning, pushing to the remote repo, and such. Beyond that, I still feel I need more practice with Git.

I've been enjoying the class so far!

ga-wdi-boston/git-practice

Response - Laurisa

1. I learn best visually and then hearing a review. That discussion reminds me of what I read and it sinks in.
2. The flowcharts were the most helpful to me.
3. I am 4/5 comfortable with the workflow, I just need some more practice.

Thanks!

First Response

How do you learn best?

I learn best with hands-on-training. Repetition and Practice

Which resources from this document helped you the most?
The links to the Git exercises helped practice into place with the commands, so I learned the most from that resource.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?

I am comfortable with pulling, forking, pushing, and committing a project. However, after reviewing the Doc and practicing the git exercises -- I feel more confused because the visuals made it more difficult to comprehend.

First Reflection on WDI

Overall I think the course is going to be great. All instructors so far seem to be committed to us as students to teach us how to be effective jr. web developers. Pace overall in the class is fine but this afternoon when we were doing the code along in JavaScript basics 2 went by over my head. Still have a lot of confusion about how we know what steps need to come next when writing functions.

I wonder how much help there will be available for students outside of class instruction. We have our 1 on 1s every 2 weeks but are there evening or weekend office hours where potentially small groups can meet for 2 hours and and example review again the JavaScript basics 2 again in a different way? I know FEWD does that.

How do you learn best?

• I learn best with seeing visual maps and having multiple explanations for the same concept. This helps me form my own wording of the concepts so I can understand them better.

Which resources from this document helped you the most?

• the required reading was the most helpful. It gave me a bigger picture of best practices in the real world.
• the Learn Git Branching tutorial was difficult because of the way the website is set up. If you make 1 mistake you have to refresh you page and start all over where as in say the terminal, if you type in a wrong command its easy to backtrack without starting all over again.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?

• I would say 3/5. I understand what the different workflows do. Would like to practice the git commands more.

Response

How do you learn best?
-Practice (starting with walk-throughs, then getting to make my own errors and documenting them well)
-With new concepts: Spoken explanations, with analogies and "case studies" (then words, then visuals)

Which resources from this document helped you the most?
-Comparing Workflows helped me put a few pieces together and used the sort of concept-in-practice example (Mary-Bill-John) that's really helpful for me.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?
4/5 -- I just need to spend more time tinkering with real applications in Terminal and on GitHub.

First reflection

1. I learn best by actually doing things. Repetition is the only way I can solidify the information that I learn in my brain. I also learn from practical real world examples of problems.
2. I really enjoyed the reading from Atlasssian about comparing the different types of workflows. They covered all aspects of multiple workflows. I also really enjoyed the examples they had with the coworkers. I enjoyed the code school link as well, but I thought it was too easy. The learn git branching exercise was helpful and I enjoyed the diagrams that would change according to our code. This helped to visualize the process much better.
3. I feel much more comfortable with the workflow used in class after using these resources. I feel like I'll continue to feel more comfortable as class goes on and we do this more, but I'm at a good space now.
   Also, good job at digging up some great resources for us to use!

Git Homework

I found the atlassian interactive 'hints' and 'get answer' options to be really helpful in combination with the illustrations. I tend to learn best aurally, but if I am not hearing the instruction, I find reverse engineering to be a good way to learn. Really, I need to experience information and practice in multiple ways to for anything to stick.

I feel pretty comfortable with Git, though I plan to practice more this afternoon to review.

First Response

The first day went very well. I typically learn best with online courses, but I figured this material would be way too challenging to teach myself and so far that seems true.

The in class lesson was clear. I think I got a solid understanding. With the prework and today's lesson it seems that I understand the concepts really well, but struggle a bit when I need to do it myself.

I think the Learn Git Branching tutorials set me way back. After an hour and a half I almost stopped reading them entirely because they were messing up what I'd learned earlier in class. Hopefully we can go over these topics tomorrow.

Response

It took me way more than an hour to finish the tutorials. It was very informative but it offered too many terms that I got confused easily. Will appreciate it if the instructor walks through them in class!

The course pace is reasonable. However, as I don't have much technical background, I will understand something better if it's explained in fewer technical terms, more with things we can relate to. And if possible, please explain it in different ways too!

I learn best by practicing. Therefore the tutorials did help. I'm fairly comfortable with the workflow to share work and responses.

Thank you!

Git Basics > Practice > Response

How do you learn best?

For me the best way to learn is through practice and repetition.

Which resources from this document helped you the most?

The git branching exercises were very helpful

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?

I feel relatively comfortable, but I can definitely use a little more practice.

Nick's Response

1. I learn best by doing. Ideally, guided work, followed by independent problem-solving.
2. Honestly, probably Learn Git Branching, though I found some aspects of it frustrating. It was definitely useful to have to think through complicated git maneuvers and see them represented visually.
3. Fairly. I will be more comfortable once I've done it a few times in the context of an actual project.

Note: It took me over an hour to complete the Learn Git Branching. In part, this was because there was no way (as far as I could tell) to reset the current problem other than by refreshing and navigating back to it... so any time I made a mistake I had to do that, and it was fairly time consuming.

Git Homework

I was not able to complete the GIT branching piece. I need more time to digest workflow. The Learn Git Branching is quite good with showing the diagrams and updating them in realtime. I will complete the Learn Git Branching this weekend and probably do it twice. Will get help as needed

Make room to demo first git branching tutorial level in class

Response

1.) I learn best through repetition whether it be Git commands or writing code. Sitting and listening can help, but actually doing whatever we are learning about multiple times is best for me.

2.) I thought the 'Learn Git Branching' link was the most helpful for this assignment.

3.) I am feeling pretty comfortable with how to use Git. I would give myself 3-4/5 at the moment. I am still somewhat confused with some commands (upstream, fetch, rebase), branch forcing, and relative references.

Homework : Git Lesson

i am having difficulty with pacing and time. I was confused in class with javascript i did receive help from classmates and lessons. I was having difficulty with functions i went home and did some research and tutorials online. I worked on that mostly last night when i got to the homework i did not finish it but the tutorial on branching was great it was visual and broke it down. mainly i am having rouble with timing i did bring it up already so i know that it is being worked on.

Constrain which tutorials and which levels to complete

See #21

Response to 3 questions

1. I learn best from being hands-on immediately after, and during, a lecture. I find if I just read material, it doesn't really sink in until I actually attempt what was presented.
2. I liked the "learn git branching" link that you provided because it broke things down into smaller pieces, and then had me do the exercises immediately after.
3. I'm still not completely comfortable with the workflow, and git commands, but I'm getting there. On a scale of 1-5, I was probably a 1.5/2 yesterday, today I'm around a 3, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be at 4 and so on.

Git Basics: Practice > Response (Required)

For a first message, I don't have much to say. Our time during the days seems well spent so far. I'm looking forward to learning more from the GA staff and from my fellow WDIers.

How do you learn best?

Practice and repetition through application of acquired knowledge, I think.

Which resources from this document helped you the most?

The Learn Git Branching tutorial was more helpful than the Atlassian "Getting Started" reading. However, I think it will be beneficial to revisit the Atlassian resources as I become more comfortable with Git and its related workflows.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?

I feel comfortable now, but I might forget a few of the commands tomorrow morning and the day after that. However, having to repeatedly perform the fork > clone > commit > push > pull request process for our diagnostics should help cement the basic workflow.

Jessica C-H

So far I'm enjoying the course. I found myself stuggling with the precourse work as I am very much an in class learner. It helps me a tremendous amount to have someone there to answer my (millions of) questions. I think I struggle a lot more when there isn't someone there to help me work through it. Teaching myself out of class is a new challenge for me as well. I'm starting to scratch the surface of it but it is definitely a slow process. I am feel relatively confident with the git workflow and process. It will certainly be a practice over time kind of thing but I understand the need for each step and am starting to remember them. Thus far, the General Assembly walk throughs have been the most helpful. I think the flow charts don't quite make sense to me so they cause a bit of confusion.

git-basics-practice_response

I'm really loving the course so far; I banked a lot on this being a good decision and I'm happy and relieved to have that confidence reaffirmed.

• I unfortunately(?) learn best through getting slammed with information in every possible way, so it takes a lot of listening, doing, saying, reading etc for total comprehension. I took a learning style test years ago and most people have more of a triangle shape where it points (I forget the name for that type of graph) out to two or three dominant learning types and mine was almost a perfect star. I can never be sure which method works best for each piece of information so I just go for a bombardment of listening, doing, conversing about it, reading about, and rinse repeat, repeat, repeat until it sticks.
• The initial readings didn't click much at first (if yet at all) but I think getting that type of information is important, and a good starting point. All I've wanted from the start is a visualization of git and somehow it made things more confusing--for now. I think it will be really helpful eventually and hope that despite tedium, force-feeding it ad nauseum will get me more comfortable by the end of the week. I opened two versions of the git branching tutorial in two side-by-side windows and did both the exercise and instructions simultaneously because i was sick of refreshing the page in attempt to use a reset function. This made it take way more than an hour (and I still have plenty to do) but it also forced me to do every single thing AT LEAST twice, which I think will pay off in the end.
• Not nearly as comfortable as I'd like to be. I'm getting there, and I hope throughout the week that will advance quickly and that if not by the end of the week, I'll be much more comfortable with it after letting rote drills swallow my weekend and the free time it allows.

I'm happy with the pace of everything so far and just focusing on keeping up. Looking forward to my first of many WDI-induced existential crises.

Response

tryGit Octocat exercise completed
barely started Learn Git Branching, not completed. It's almost 1am and I need to sleep.

Course is good so far. Definitely feels worthwhile!
To learn best:
-- Examples grounded in reality, theoretical examples feel like nonsense to me. I have a difficult time attaching meaning to them --they feel like obscure jargon-- and so have a difficult time reading them until we are using them with a story.
-- Absorb each lesson through as many of my senses as possible. The Pre-work was challenging for me because it was so dry and static.
-- I need to hear someone read out-loud how I should be reading the code it in my head, I need to watch as someone writes the code out step-by-step, and then I need to copying it myself and poke at it until it works.
-- I feel like I'm a step behind in class, not because I don't understand things, just that the instructor often asks a question before I am done processing what we last did. I often feel like I don't know the answer to a question, because I feel like I don't understand the question, due to still thinking about whatever last happened.

Resources from this doc most helpful? Comparing Workflows tutorial from Atlassian was good, tho took 2 hrs for me to read.

I feel mostly comfortable with Git workflow. I didn't understand branches yesterday, but I think I do today.

Response - Kathleen

***Feedback on the Learning Git Branching interactive tutorial at the bottom of this issue!

A. How do you learn best?

I learn best visually. Once I get the visual down, I can integrate theory very well and can focus much better on what the instructor is saying rather than scrambling to (now) type (rather than) write as fast as possible before a great nugget of info is lost by a scrolling screen! If we're talking about concepts and there's no visual provided, I get lost extremely quickly and my focus gets pulled if there happens to be any sort of external noise other the teacher speaking. Not sure what's up with my brain and THAT. The external noise stuff. I think it has to do with once confusion sets in, external noise amplifies confusion and pulls focus?

Not sure if that's clear, it's gotten late and I started the homework last night and continued during any break on Wednesday to get a jump on the compressed timeframe available that my commute hours take out of work time. Aaaaand I'm rambling. Hopefully next time I can timeblock better? :) Honestly, I'm a bit stressed that I don't have all the (required) tutorials from that interactive site complete, because... practice. Graduation requirements. Incomplete practice. AAAACK! Rambling again.

B. Which resources from this document helped you the most?

The Atlassian articles, definitely. I was getting pretty clear on concepts, especially pull/push (even though I want to practice pull and setting a remote add of an upstream to really understand that better). It took me at least 2-3 hours to dig into the comparing workflows section and into the pull/push/rebase sessions to try to see if I could catch up from getting lost during Tuesday's git lecture. And then another hour or two to review the Atlassian material again. Still not fully clear, but now I have a better understanding of feature branch workflow (except for rebase), git workflow, and forking workflow.

My brief feedback on the Learn Git Branching tutorial is: good effort. Confused me even more because of poor UX choices by the site designer which I could list if that would be helpful in any way, so… I’m not sure if it’s a good learning opportunity to know that particular resource may not be a good choice? It has the potential to be. It actually seemed to undo the learning I did from Altassian and I'm now completely confused with detaching the HEAD and moving the HEAD. That's where I stopped since... need to get sleep back on track.

C. How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?
Fairly comfortable. Need to practice the push/pull to an upstream branch and explore that a bit more. I still get a bit confused on how that works in a feature branch workflow vs the forking workflow with respect to pulling in changes from an updated master, or an updated upstream branch from someone else. Hopefully more practice and I'll get that better? It'd be really cool to do a feature branch exercise where we work on a branches off of a developer branch, and need to merge two separate features/make sure we're staying in sync.

And that's it for now. Sleep. See everyone soon.

--- My brief feedback on the Learn Git Branching tutorial is: good effort. Confused me even more because of poor UX choices, so… I’m not sure if it’s a good learning opportunity? It has the potential to be.

The longer version:
Speaking as a multimedia designer, the design of this exercise is confusing from a user experience perspective, which makes it extremely confusing for any sort of visual learner.

The font is hard to read, the text on the left side of the demonstration gets cut off if the text is lengthy (there’s no obvious scrollbar indicating more text to read unless you accidentally hover your mouse over the text). That causes a lot of the explanations to be cut off, which leads to (understandable) confusion about why there’s no explanation with respect to what happened after clicking a demo button. The problem is enhanced if you happen to use browser zooming.

The color coding in the branching section, while well intentioned, actually made learning branching even more confusing. So was the visual style of not actually showing a branch, branch off from a master. The first branching lesson branched in a straight line directly downward from the master.

There’s so much that needs fixing from the UX perspective to help students get the concepts more easily with this method, I could list it at some other point, time permitting since I have a background in taking complex concepts and designing (and animating concepts) for my clients. Haven’t even gotten past the force move a branch/HEAD in unit 1, so I don’t know if this issue carries through the rest of the exercises on this site.

Just heard from another classmate that there was an icon on the bottom right that shows the solution. Completely missed that.

The Atlasssian visuals and explanations are MUCH more clear for the layman (it’d be nice if those’d animate… but…)

Response

I have nothing but good things to say about the course so far. I've been teaching myself web development for about a year and the program looks like its going to be everything I was hoping it would be.

I'm not really sure how I learn best - the "I code, we code, you code" approach seemed to work well for me today. At some point during the second half of the Github lesson the wheels fell off for me and I'm having trouble getting my footing again. I've spent more than an hour on the "Try Git" tutorial and I'm much more confused than when I started. I'm not sure how much detail on that will be helpful, but I'm finding the visuals very confusing and there isn't an easy way to reread the lessons they give once the exercises start. So I've been having to hit the "Solutions" button, but the solution animation goes by too fast (for me) and then disappears when the "You solved it!" animation begins. A lot of the "Comparing Workflows" reading is going over my head too, which makes me think I missed something fundamental during instruction today and I'm having trouble getting to the root of it. My plan is to take a look at some of the Bonus material and hope that things start to click a little more during instruction tomorrow. If that fails I will reach out to an instructor.

At the moment I would say I'm fairly comfortable using Git with my own local files but pretty deep in the weeds once GitHub is involved.

Response - Kelvin

1. I'm finding that I'm learning best by doing. Performing the actions helps me immensely with retention. Being able to see how everything happens visually also helps.
2. The code-along tutorials were great, though a bit unclear in the logic of how everything plays together. The Atlassian tutorial was very detailed and explained everything clearly, but lacked the interactivity that helped with my retention.
3. I'm getting more and more comfortable with the workflow the more I do it. My squad (Bean Squad) is pushing our lab to github to share our code for practice.

First Response

I enjoyed the pace of today's class as despite a few mistakes on my part, I was able to keep up and understand the concepts that we covered. The homework proved to be far more difficult for me though. Having spent more than an hour on the Git Branching tutorial I'm still pretty lost as to the syntax for various commands and the general objectives that we're meant to accomplish.

• I usually learn best by studying course materials but the hands-on instruction in the course has been far more useful. Studying some outside resources has been helpful but I've found a few such as the Git Branching tutorial to be convoluted and more confusing than clarifying.
• I found the lesson repos to be most useful along with Try Git tutorial which helped solidify some of the concepts we learned today.
• I'm moderately comfortable with the workflow that we covered in class today but am still trying to get a grasp on git branching.

Did not complete homework

I got stuck on Git branches assignment, in the middle of the second level. It was a bit confusing.

Response to questions.

1: I tend to learn best by reading the README and following the instructions there at my own pace, but pacing with the rest of the class is fine too. I enjoyed working on the labs/asessments the most.

2: To be honest, while the resources provided were great for reinforcing the lesson and reviewing, I learned the most about git in the fundamentals and in class.

3: On a scale of 1-10, 10 being perfectly comfortable, I would place myself around a 8 or a 9. The only thing that threw me for a loop was when we started using upstream and included a 3rd repo. Honestly though, we probably aren't going to use that as much and if/when we do, there will be instructor guidance /help available to clarify things or give us the commands we need to use. Later in the course, after using upstream/remote repos and such multiple times, I should be comfortable with it on my own enough to not require any help. At least... thats the hope 😁

Response

1. By being pushed and I need the motivation. That's the reason why I joined. There are lots of resources out there on the web for free, but no support system and endless frustrations. I prefer the Spartan style of learning with focus and learn with others. I know it would have been extremely difficult for me do what we have done alone in 3 days.

2. I liked todays lesson a lot with the code along with Antony. It felt like that was real coding, solving problems like counting words and sorting them and counting them. I understand how to do it conceptually but was unclear on how to put it in code but it really came together when I saw Antony's code. I think there's beauty and elegance in such things. I just got to get better at writing the code of concepts in my head in proper syntax and in clear steps. It really felt like problem solving with a computer as a real tool. It only took minutes to write a code that does something quite powerful. If we had a bigger text, we would have appreciated just how powerful a computer is when you know how to tell it to do what you want it to do. I wanna get comfortable with programming enough that when I see a problem, I'll try to solve it with a computer. It is a universal machine after all.

3. I am comfortable with it. I forgot to branch before working and pushing onetime, but it wasn't because I didn't understand. I imagine I will become more comfortable with it with time, but I do want to work on it on my own to master it. I think version control is a must have skill if I want to work in the industry.

response

1. I learn best when coding with teammates and speaking out my thinking process
2. Learn git branching remote portion helped me a lot
3. 4 of 5

Homework things

I learn best through examples and hands on learning.

My favorite document was the visual interpretation of git, thought I may have gone way too far. (woohoo)

I'm very comfortable with the workflow!

Cheers.

Response to the three questions you posed:

1. How do you learn best?
   a) I tend to learn best by following examples and having a problem to solve to best understand how and why certain tools/commands/methodologies were used. I also like seeing the basic structure of something to see where things plug in so I can understand all the parts that need to be involved in order to make it complete.

2. Which resources from this document helped you the most?
   a) In this particular instance it really was the class time and working through the story. The Atlassian reading was great as well but it really helped to get into the terminal and try to accomplish a goal (in this case helping Morty) in order to get the feel for a (simple) workflow and the potential commands we would use.

3. How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses?
   a) I feel pretty comfortable (on a scale to five, probably 4 to 4.5) on the series of steps and git commands. Once we get into the remote pushing and pulling, I get it but my understanding is certainly more fragile.

First Response

So far I am feeling pretty good about the course. I feel that the instruction team is very knowledgable and helpful. It is nice to see that the sense of humor is light and when you need a laugh the team lightens the mood.

How do you learn best? This is debatable.... I think in the past I always tried to learn through memorization. So far in the program I have learned the most through doing. Some topics take me longer to comprehend but others don't.

Which resources from this document helped you the most? I thought the code school work and learn git branching resources were the best. It is reaffirming my new belief in learning through doing.

How comfortable are you with the workflow (series of steps and git commands) we use to share work and responses? I think I am right on course. I guess tomorrow morning will be a good test of my thoughts. Overall, the pace has been manageable to this point. Some moments seem a bit fast when you are trying to rationalize a topic in your mind, but so far I have been able to recover.