I have a lot to say on this week’s reflection blog, so let’s get started!

First, I want to give an update on this class. I have really been enjoying the format, layout, and schedule of this class. I am also liking what we are learning! Learning to code is hard and frustrating, but it can be a helpful skill to have!

Second, I think I know what I want to do for my final project. If I actually decide on my idea, I think it will take a lot of work and time but it should be worth it in the end. I am stuck between a few similar ideas, but hopefully by the end of next week I will have figured out exactly what I want to do.

Third, I have to talk about the actual reading from this week! The topic was “Where are my files” and it basically discussed GitHub in depth. Luckily, I am taking a math course where I have to use Python for my group projects, so one of my team members did explain to me the basics of branching, pulling, and pushing.

The web artifact I am using this week is GitLab. This is a company I found while job hunting. I thought it was under the same company as GitHub, but I was wrong. Both GitLab and GitHub are web-based Git repositories, but what does that even mean? Well, Git is suppose to manage software development project and its files. In my mind, I related it to Google Docs but for code. Now it is not the same at all, but it is similar in that different people in different locations can work on the same project without having to continuously email the code back and forth to one another. For Git repositories, there are more steps to take than just typing and saving like in Google Docs.

The surface level differences between GitLab and GitHub are the founding date, the founders, and the language in which it is written. Beyond surface level, the largest differences between the two according to usersnap is that GitLab offers its own CI for free to the customer. This can save time when developing projects. In GitHub, CI needs to have additional applications to run while in GitLab the CI needs no human interaction.

Other differences between the two include the setup cost and what type of detailed documentation comes with each program. GitLab provides great instructions on how to import data from other vendors. It also allows you to export your projects to include extra data, like labels or merge requests.

A huge advantage to GitHub is the community of users in the platform. There are millions of developers that are highly active online. This is an area that GitLab seems to be lacking in. Github is still the most popular git repository and has the larger number of users and projects. GitLab seems to be a great alternative without having to learn an entire new platform. Because of my math course group projects and this English course, I am becoming more interested in GitHub. I need to spend more time exploring the open projects and figuring out how to use it better!