1. Project Management

Summary

This week we learned how to use the GIT version control system, its workflow and how to use Markdown to make project documentation quick and easy.

Documenting Progress

Pics or it didn’t happen is not only an internet rule, but a rule in all science - if one cannot provide a detailed report on one’s findings or innovations, one cannot pass on their knowledge (effectively, anyway). The first week’s lesson was all about learning on how to document our course progression in a way that was convenient for ourselves to create and update and for our sensei to check up on. Version control (provided by gitlab) was to ensure a non-destructive way of taking notes of our progress without worry of massive loss of data (with the additional bonus of providing some free webspace for the project documentation website) and Markdown would provide an easy way to make and edit said website.

Using GIT

Git is the most popular version control system in the world. Created by the legendary Linus Torvalds for his own projects, git is now used by everyone.

What does version control mean though?

Version control means the git software is observing your project files for changes and makes versions of those files as you continue your work (though it does work for many other forms of gradual progression, like creation of art assets, as well), backing up every version of work you create and commit to it. This is useful as you may want to “roll back” to an older, working version of your project in various cases.

Using BASH

Like many other GNU/Linux-based software solutions, BASH has no graphical user interface and works solely via a command line interface. During this week’s course, we learned some basics on it’s use, a few directory and file manipulation commands and how to use git-specific commands to index and upload our progress.

From memory, here are a few commands I still remember:

Command	Decoded	Description
pwd	“print working directory”	Output a path to the folder (“directory”) you’re currently working in
cd folder/path/	“change directory”	Changes working directory to the one specified after the space (using “..” instead of a folder name will move you one folder up the tree)
mkdir path/foldername	“make directory”	Creates a specified directory in the specified path
cp path/file.name path/newfile.name	“copy”	Copies a file or folder to a specified location
mv path/file.name path/newfile.name	“move”	Copies a file or folder to a specified location and deletes the original
rm path/file.name	“remove”	Deletes a file or folder in a specified location

GIT has it’s own set of commands and arguments to manage your project files. The following are the ones we will be using the most (Descriptions are what I’ve understood the commands are doing…):

Command	Command arguments	Description
git status	-	Provides a status summary of a git-managed folder if your working directory is one.
git add	filenames / *	Adds separate files or entire folders and subfolders to the index.
git rm	filenames / *	Removes separate files or entire folders and / or subfolders from the index.
git commit	-	Creates the necessary file links for version control of your progress.
git pull	-m "message"	Merges the remote repository into the local folder structure. The message helps tracking the changes made to the project.
git push	project branch	Merges the committed local files into the remote repository & updates the remote folder structure.

Weekly Assignment

This week’s assigment was to practice what we’ve learned and to create a webpage with our project documentation.