If you’re a programmer, having a GitHub account is absolutely mandatory. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pro or if you’re only just beginning your journey as a software developer. It’s the place to build your programming portfolio, get useful advice, and safely store your code.
It is, of course, a platform that’s constantly upgrading. The newest features they’ve introduced are codespaces, discussions, code scanning, and private instances. So what are they, and why should you care?
In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about GitHub’s newest features and a bit about its alternatives like GitLab and SourceForge.
So without further ado, let’s get to it!
First of all, what is GitHub?
Okay, this is for those who are only beginning to use GitHub for their software development needs.
To put it simply, it’s a platform that lets you develop code, build software, and contribute your knowledge to other projects. It’s an amazing platform for project management since it lets you work with other people from anywhere. It has numerous tools and features that will help you develop your code in no time. Its huge, knowledgable community is the heart of the platform. You’ll be able to review and improve other people’s code, get incredible feedback, and access millions of fresh ideas.
Codespaces
If you’re into programming, then you’ve probably used Microsoft’s Visual Studio before. Well, now you can access it through GitHub, using the Codespaces feature! You can choose your dev environment in a matter of seconds, and code directly in the browser. You’ll have access to all the developer tools you need, and it’s super easy to navigate. You can change the environment extremely quickly, and if you still prefer using the desktop version of the Visual Studio, you can always connect it to your GitHub.
This is very important, as the default editor in GitHub is basically a text editor, and coding complex projects without sufficient tools is far from the optimal situation. With GitHub Codespaces you’ll get a complete dev environment with all the tools you may need. You’ll be able to configure it to fit all of your needs and more. It’s an extremely useful feature that will make coding on GitHub much easier.
It’s still in the limited beta edition, and the pricing isn’t finalized yet. It’s going to progress pretty soon, so it will be available for everyone and it will always be affordable.
Discussions
When we want coding advice, we usually rely on Stack Overflow or Reddit. Now, with GitHub discussions, you’ll be able to seek advice and ideas from the GitHub community.
Sharing ideas and experience is a huge part of the whole coding process. You’ll be able to gain a lot of knowledge easily with the Discussions feature. Unfortunately, it won’t be „reputation centered“, so many people think it won’t be as reliable as the Stack Overflow for example. Still, it’s a very useful feature to have. It will make the GitHub experience much more complete.
It’s still currently in beta testing, but you can expect more upgrades soon. Learning from other people is a key part of every programmer’s experience. It’s super important to have community support as it helps us improve our skills and learn new ways to code.
All in all, this is a great addition to GitHub’s collection of features, and it’s sure to help programmers around the world develop quality software solutions.
Code Scanning
Making your software safe and secure is one of the most important parts of software development. With the new code scanning feature, this becomes much easier. You’ll get suggestions directly into your pull request. This feature uses the CodeQL analysis engine which is extremely reliable and trustworthy.
You’ll know exactly what to fix, and why. It will not only help you find possible security vulnerabilities but also learn a huge deal about them too. It’s available for all open-source projects for completely free. You can contribute to a project with no worries at all when it comes to the security of your code.
Other than that, the secret scanning feature is now available for private repositories. This feature, formerly known as token scanning, was only available for public repositories. Users have been pushing for it to become available for private ones for years, and now it’s finally here! It’s incredibly useful and easy to use.
Private instances
This feature is made for enterprises that are using GitHub. It makes security management much easier and is extremely useful for any enterprise that uses GitHub to develop its software solutions. As stated at GitHub, this feature will provide „enhanced security, compliance, and policy features including bring-your-own-key encryption, backup archiving, and compliance with regional data sovereignty requirements.“
It’s a very useful feature that’s easy to use and navigate, and it’s made to ensure that the enterprises can completely rely on GitHub for building and using the software.
The alternatives
As amazing as it is, GitHub does have its own disadvantages that may leave you looking for alternatives. Sometimes you’ll need to use a version control software that’s not supported by GitHub.
If that’s the case, there are a couple of great alternatives you can use instead. The most popular one is the GitLab. When it comes to GitHub vs GitLab comparisons, you can find a detailed guide on this website. Other than GitLab, popular alternatives are SourceForge, GitKraken, ApacheAllura, and many more.
Before you start to look for GitHub alternatives, make sure to do some research to ensure you’ll be getting what you need. Always remember that GitHub is constantly upgrading and developing, so if it lacks in some features now, chances are that this will change soon. It’s still the most popular platform available, and there is a good reason for that.
The takeaway
Github is an open-source platform used by developers around the world. It’s packing with different features and it’s constantly upgrading and improving. The newest features introduced in GitHub are GitHub Discussions, Code Scanning, Codespaces, and Private Instances. All of these are incredibly useful and easy to use.
Since these new features are still in their beta versions, you can expect them to be even more useful when they’re finally fully developed.
