01-git

Lesson 1: Gitting into it!

Date: Feb 9th, 2026

Overview

Welcome to your first step into professional software development! Today we aren't just learning commands; we are learning how to collaborate, save our work safely, and manage the history of our projects.

Agenda

1. What is Version Control?

   • Why do we need it? (No more final_final_v2.docx)
   • Centralized vs Distributed (Git).

2. Core Concepts

   • Repository (Repo): The folder where your project lives.
   • Commit: A snapshot of your project at a specific time.
   • Stage (Add): Preparing files for a commit.
   • Branch: A parallel version of your code (like a timeline split).

3. The "Happy Path" Workflow

   1. git status (Always check where you are!)
   2. git add . (Stage changes)
   3. git commit -m "message" (Save changes)
   4. git push (Send to GitHub)

4. Branching & Merging

   • Why branch? To work on features without breaking the main code.
   • git checkout -b new-feature
   • git merge new-feature

5. The Scary Part: Merge Conflicts

   • What happens when two people change the same line?
   • How to resolve them calmly.

Class Activity

We will pair up and try to edit the same file in a shared repository to trigger a merge conflict intentionally!