- application programming interface
- An application programming interface or API is the medium, method, and rules through which a user interacts with software. The API includes a medium which can be a command line interface on a specific local terminal or a graphical user interface. The API also defines the commands through which a user interacts with the software.
- benevolent dictator
- In open-source software, a benevolent dictator is an informal term for a person who has broad authority over the direction of a project and final say over which changes are accepted. In many modern projects, decision-making is shared across several maintainers rather than centered on one individual.
- Bitbucket
- Bitbucket or Bitbucket.org is a cloud source code management service platform designed to enable scalable, efficient, and secure version controlled collaboration by linking local Git version controlled software development by developers.
- Bitkeeper
- BitKeeper was a proprietary version control system that played an important role in the history of Linux kernel development and influenced the design of Git.
- Box, Inc.
- Box, Inc. is a cloud file storage and file sharing service used by many universities and businesses. It supports file synchronization and sharing, but it is not a full version control platform like GitHub.
- branch
- A branch is a named line of development in a Git repository. Branches allow a user to work on one set of changes independently from another set of changes.
- centralized version control system
- A centralized version control system or CVCS is an approach to version control in which all the files in a repository as well as the change history (content and timing) are located on a central remote server. User’s check out versions of files from the repository and check them back in, creating new change history on the central server.
- clone
- Clone can be a verb or a noun in the context of Git software. A clone is a local copy of a remote repository with its entire Git distributed version control system history. To clone a repository is to use the
git clone [repo path]command to copy a remote repository to your local machine with the accompanying Git version control history. - cloud
- Cloud can be a descriptor or a noun. As a descriptor, cloud refers to computational resources, such as servers, that are accessed remotely via the internet. As a noun, remote computational resources and storage can be referred to generically as “the cloud”.
- command line interface
- A command line interface or CLI is a text-based way of interacting with software by typing commands into a terminal.
- commit
- Commit can be a verb or a noun in Git. As a verb, to commit means to record a set of staged changes in the repository history. As a noun, a commit is that recorded snapshot together with its author, timestamp, and message.
- continuous integration
- Continuous integration or CI is the practice of automatically running checks, such as tests, builds, or style validation, whenever changes are proposed or merged.
- diff
- A diff is a comparison that shows the differences between two versions of a file, commit, or branch.
- distributed version control system
- A distributed version control system or DVCS is version control system software on any computer, local or remote, that tracks the entire history of changes to a repository and coordinates and organizes collaboration among multiple users. It is distributed in the sense that multiple clones of a single remote repository have the same full history of that repository.
- Dropbox
- Dropbox is a cloud file storage and synchronization service. It is useful for sharing files, but it does not provide the same history, branching, and code review features as Git and GitHub.
- fork
- A fork is a copy of a remote repository created under a different GitHub account or organization. Forks are central to many open-source workflows because they let contributors propose changes without direct write access to the upstream repository.
- Git
- Git is open source version control system software with capability designed to also operate as distributed version control system (DVCS) software that resides on your local computer and tracks changes and the history of changes to all the files in a directory or repository. See the Git website https://
git -scm .com/ and the Git Wikipedia entry Wikipedia Contributors (2020) for more information. - GitHub
- GitHub or GitHub.com is a cloud source code management service platform designed to enable scalable, efficient, and secure version controlled collaboration by linking local Git version controlled software development by users. GitHub’s main business footprint is hosting a collection of millions of version controlled code repositories. In addition to being a platform for distributed version control system (DVCS), GitHub’s primary features include code review, project management, continuous integration unit testing, GitHub actions, and associated web page (GitHub pages) and documentation hosting and deployment.
- GitHub actions
- GitHub Actions is GitHub’s automation system for running workflows such as tests, builds, deployments, and repository maintenance tasks.
- GitLab
- GitLab is a source code hosting and collaboration platform similar to GitHub. It supports Git repositories, issue tracking, merge requests, CI, and other project management features.
- Google Docs
- Google Docs is a cloud-based collaborative word-processing application. It is useful for shared writing, but it is not a substitute for Git-based version control of code repositories.
- Google Drive
- Google Drive is a cloud storage and file synchronization platform from Google. It can store and share project files, but it does not provide Git-style branching, merging, and commit history.
- graphical user interface
- A graphical user interface or GUI is a visual way of interacting with software through windows, buttons, menus, icons, and other on-screen elements.
- integrated development environment
- Integrated development environment or IDE is a software application that consolidates many of the functions of software development under one program. IDEs often include a code editor, object memory and identification, debugger, and build automation tools. (See IDE Wikipedia entry Wikipedia Contributors (2020).)
- Linux
- Linux is a family of open-source operating systems whose development history is closely tied to the history of Git.
- local
- Local is a descriptor that refers to files that reside or operations that are performed on a user’s machine to which he or she has direct access without using the internet.
- local version control system
- A local version control system or LVCS is the simplest and most common approach to VCS. LVCS stores all the changes to the files in a repository locally on the user’s machine as a series of changes or deltas in the files. This is the approach taken by Apple’s Time Machine backup software as most software that includes an “undo” function.
- merge
- Merge can be a verb or a noun. To merge is to combine changes from one branch into another branch. A merge may happen automatically or may require human conflict resolution.
- open source
- Open source is a descriptor that is usually applied to software or computer code projects, but can also be applied to any project based upon or represented by digital files. An open source project is one in which the source code is freely available to be downloaded and used and in which collaboration, improvements, and changes to the code are encouraged. The free download and use (outward direction) aspect of open source is often emphasized. But the collaboration and improvement contribution (inward direction) aspect is at least as important. Git and GitHub have enabled efficient and scalable collaboration to a degree not seen in other collaborative workflows.
- pull request
- A pull request or PR is a GitHub request asking maintainers to review and merge a proposed set of changes from one branch into another branch.
- remote
- Remote is a descriptor that refers to files that reside or operations that are carried out on a server to which a user has access using the internet.
- repository
- A repository or “repo” is a directory containing files that are tracked by a version control system. A local repository resides on a local machine. A remote repository resides in the cloud.
- source code management service
- A source code management service is a cloud platform that hosts computer code files and provides either centralized version control system (CVCS) or distributed version control system. As the central hub of either CVCS or DVCS, the source code management service provides the platform and rules for distributed code collaboration. Leading examples are GitHub and Bitbucket.
- unit testing
- Unit testing is the practice of writing and running tests for small, individual parts of a code base to confirm that each part behaves as expected.
- upstream
- In a fork-based GitHub workflow, upstream usually refers to the main shared repository that your fork and local clone are based on.
- version control system
- Version control system or version control software or VCS is software that records changes to a set of files, including the order in which the changes were made and the content of those changes, in such a way that previous versions can be recalled or restored.
- Wikipedia Contributors. (2020). “Git.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git
- Wikipedia Contributors. (2020). “Integrated development environment.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment