Chapter 1.2 - Introduction to Git. Introduction to HTML.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use Git—a free and open source distributed version control system designed to work on small or large projects in collaboration with other programmers. It can be used locally on your computer to keep track of changes you make to your project, or online with Github to collaborate with people across multiple networks. After learning about Git, you will learn the basics of HTML and set up your own project on Github.

GitHub is the industry standard for showcasing your programming portfolio. Technology companies and universities like to see what you have been working on and GitHub provides an easy way to showcase that.

By the end of this course, you will be hosting a fully-customized portfolio site, built from scratch, on GitHub Pages—a static website hosting service that takes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files straight from a repository on GitHub, optionally runs the files through a build process, and publishes a website.

Install Git (Windows only)

Git is installed on Linux and macOS computers by default. However, Windows does not include it. If you are using a Windows machine, follow the instructions below to install Git onto your computer.

  1. Open the Git website.
  2. Click the Download link to download Git. The download should automatically start.
  3. Once downloaded, start the installation from the browser or the download folder.
  4. In the Select Components window, leave all default options checked and check any other additional components you want installed.
  5. Next, in the Choosing the default editor, select VS Code.
  6. Next, in the Adjusting your PATH environment, we recommend keeping the default Use Git from the command line and also from 3rd-party software as shown below. This option allows you to use Git from either Git Bash or the Windows Command Prompt.
  7. Next, we recommend leaving the default selected as Use OpenSSH.
  8. Next, in Choosing HTTPS transport backend, leave the default Use the OpenSSL library selected.
  9. In the Configuring the line ending conversions, select Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings unless you need other line endings for your work.
  10. In the Configuring the terminal emulator to use with Git Bash window, select Use MinTTY (the default terminal of MSYS2).
  11. Click the Install button

If you are on Windows, use Git Bash (a Unix-based shell) throughout the course. In our experience, it is a lot more beneficial to learn Unix shell than Windows, and so we will not be including Windows-based examples.

What is HTML?

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the language that is used across all of the websites on the internet to display information. HTML files are just plain text files (with .html extension) that consist of a series of elements which tell the browser how to display the content you type. Since HTML is just a markup language, there are no special programs that you need other than VSCode!