For the past two weeks, our focus shifted to Git and GitHub. Despite hearing about it through blogs and from software engineers who always preach its importance, I hadn’t really used it much. Most DePaul classes either didn't mention GitHub or barely touched on it. As a sophomore student, I feel like this is a huge gap between what school teaches us and what the real world actually demands. But finally, here we are—learning something that will genuinely be useful down the road.

I rolled up my sleeves and dived into the world of repositories. Not gonna lie, it looked complicated at first, but things are always hard before they get easier. After some research, I managed to set up my GitHub and figure out all the commands I needed for this project.

This week was all about getting a taste of how software engineers manage their day-to-day work: creating a repository, connecting it to my local machine, sending updates, and working with different branches like the main and doubleLink branches. I learned how to push updates and add meaningful comments for each step. Merging branches, though—that was the trickiest part. Specifically, understanding how to deal with merge conflicts. Seeing those weird markers like <<<<<<, ======, and >>>>>> threw me off at first. But after some back-and-forth comparing files and reading through the comments, I was able to resolve them, keeping the most important updates. Then came the usual ritual: compile, check, and "Add! Commit! Push."

And just like that, several hours later, I completed all 16 tasks. Honestly, even though it took a lot of time, I enjoyed learning about Git and GitHub. As long as there’s real value in it for my future, I don't mind putting in the effort to learn.

Catch you next time,
Your CyberFriend