Welcome! The Journey Awaits

Image comparing version track with v1, final etc and git — Unlike vaguely named files, version control makes it easy go to a specific version of a file. Source: The Turing Way project illustration by Scriberia. DOI: The Turing Way Community & Scriberia (2024)

How to use this resource?

This does not contain any guides on how to use git. There are tonnes of fantastic resources made by people who know git like the back of their hand. So, this is to signpost you to these resources.

Instead of giving you a laundry list of all of the resources under the sun, I have selected one or two resources which I think is the best for learning or achieving something. However, best is very subjective. Therefore, I will also include the other resources I have found in a list below the featured ones.

Help!! I've been bitten by the coding bug! What do I do??

Firstly, stay calm. Don't panic. It happens to even the best of us. Each path to and from this point unfurls in countless, unknowable directions, with the grace of a cat knocking a potted plant off a tall shelf - chaotic yet inexplicably elegant.

I want to ...	Link	Description
Learn more skills to help with my research	CodeRefinery workshops	Code refinery "teaches all the essential tools which are usually skipped in academic education so everyone can make full use of software, computing, and data with focus on reusability, reproducibility, and openness."
Basics about unix and programming in Python or R	Software Carpentry lessons	"Software Carpentry is a lesson program within The Carpentries teaching basic lab skills for research computing"
Read a book that's both philosophical and introduces computer science concepts	Gödel, Escher, Bach	This is the first computer science book I ever read. It explains computer science concepts in a very approachable manner and has an underlying philosophical question about how cognition emerges
Read a book about creating good software	The Pragmatic Programmer	This book "examines the core of modern software development—understanding what is wanted and producing working, maintainable code that delights its users"

I don't believe your "good coding practice" conspiracy theory. Are you just making this up?

Yes, I am. 😉 Check out these resources,

Blog post: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Research Software Engineering: From PhD to RSE
- The section "What I wish I knew in my PhD" is a great read for people just starting their PhD or in the throes of it.
Chapter on Version Control in The Turing Way
- The Turing Way is a fantastic handbook for learning more about how to make your research can be reproducible, how to plan and manage your project and how to communicate your research
- The Turing Way is massive and can feel daunting to read. However, they have pathways, e.g. Early Career Researchers, which are a curated list of chapter targeted for the pathway's audience.

GRRR a link is broken...

I apologise in advance. But, things move around on the internet. Please open an issue and I'll do my best to fix it!

Please open a pull request!

Starting with Git

xkcd comic about git — Source: xkcd 1597

Suggested Resources

I'm looking for a ...	Link	Description
Detailed guide to walk me through the set-up of `git` and GitHub	Software Carpentry Guide to Version Control with Git	The summary and set up page provides information about how to install `git` and creating a GitHub Account. Episodes 2 and 3 within the guide are about how to set up `git` and create the repository. The subsequent episodes provide practical advice on how to use `git`
Cheat sheet of `git` commands	GitHub git cheat sheet	Cheat sheet of `git` commands with explanation about what each of the commands do. A pdf version is also available
Simple English explanation of these fixes I copy and paste when I mess up	Oh Shit, Git?!	My go-to guide for when I inevitably mess up. It helped to demystify fixes which I (dangerously) blindly copied from StackOverflow
Simple English explanation of what version control is and why it is important for reproducible research	The Turing Way book's chapter on Version Control	An approximate 5-minute read which is perfect for sharing with others or PIs to bring them on board with using `git`
Book that can tell me everything I can know about `git`	Pro git book	I do NOT recommend this for beginners. But, if you're the kind of person that needs to really understand something to use it. This is the perfect resource.
Guide that is linked to a course at Imperial College London	Imperial Grad School course - Introduction to git and GitHub
Way to find out about upcoming Software Carpentry workshops	Software Carpentry website about upcoming workshops	This shows upcoming workshops around the world
Using Git and GitHub for project management	Git and GitHub for efficient project management and collaboration: a mini-tutorial	Blog post on how `git` can be used for more than just version control

None of these work for me... Do you have any others?

Overviews

Overview of git commands - Git for Beginners: The Definitive Practical Guide
Visual Git cheat sheet

Detailed Guides

Pro Git book
- The Git Basics chapter covers the most common git commands and operations
- If you'd like to use branches, I highly recommend the chapter on Git Branching
- The Git Tools chapter explores "a number of very powerful things that Git can do that you may not necessarily use on a day-to-day basis but that you may need at some point"
Git documentation
GitHub training manual
- Less detailed than the book and documentation
- Very useful information on getting started with git
- Written for teaching developers how to use git making it very useful for getting to grips with git and is very practical

More Imperial Grad School Courses

These have been created by the Imperial College Research Computing Service

Another useful course that's not related to git is Essential Software Engineering for Researchers

Creating a Repository Demo

create repository demo

Keyboard shortcuts

Git For Researchers