github

What is a repository?

In this section, we’ll discuss how to create a GitHub repository for your project. A repository is a space where all of the materials related to a project can be stored in the cloud. You can use GitHub to store, manage and publish your work. Every time that you add or change a file in the repository, Github will keep a record of what changes were made and by whom. Github is designed for collaboration. You can make changes to a text while someone else is working on the same document. Different versions (branches) of a text can be developed and then merged. You can easily undo changes. You can choose to make your Github repository open to the public or private. You can easily publish your repository as a website using GitHub pages.

In this section, we will:

  • Create a Github account
  • Create a repository
  • Choose public or private
  • Add collaborators and teams
  • Begin writing a README file in markdown
  • Create a Github account

To begin with: You will need to have an account with GitHub. It’s free to sign up and to use.
Go to Github.com and enter your information.

sign up form for github

  • Create a repository
    To create a new repository, log in to Github with the account that you created above and click on this button: new repository button

You should see a form similar to the one below.

new repository form

  • Enter a name for your repository. I find it helpful to think of this as the your project’s web address or title. Any spaces in the project name will automatically be filled with at hyphen (“my project” becomes “my-project”).

  • Choose public or private

  • Choose to make the repository public to anyone or private and visible only to your collaborators.

  • Click on the box to Initialize this repository with a README

  • It is good practice to add a license. The defaults options when creating a repository are designed for open source software. They ensure the rights of coders to share and alter each other’s code. The option that is most like a traditional copyright for scholarship is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license does not allow the distribution, alteration or commercial use of your content. You can add this license by pasting the following into your README file: [![License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-CC%20BY--NC--ND%204.0-lightgrey.svg)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)