Tag Archives: tutorials

Fun Tool To Learn More About Git Branching And Merging

Want to learn more about how to work with branches in git? Confused about what “git rebase” does? By way of a post on Google+ I learned about this great tutorial site at: http://pcottle.github.io/learnGitBranching/

Learn git branching

You can step through a whole series of guided lessons (type “levels”) that walk you through all different aspects of using git – or you can type “sandbox” and go into a private area to play. All from the comfort of your own web browser.

More information (and the source code) can be found on Github at https://github.com/pcottle/learnGitBranching. There is a neat aspect of this where people can (and I guess have) contribute additional tutorial levels.

Very cool tool!

Amusing Video Tutorial: Let’s Suck at Github Together

If you want to learn more about using git and Github, or are a fan/user of git/Github (as I am) and want to pass along a video tutorial for others to see, you may enjoy this episode from Chris Coyier entitled “CSS-Tricks #101: Let’s Suck at GitHub Together“. As you can tell from the title, Chris doesn’t mind poking some fun at his own abilities – and his own aversion to the command-line and preference for GUI utilities.

For me personally, I’m rather “old skool” and typically prefer the command-line, but I appreciate that many people don’t… and I enjoyed Chris’ entertaining episode. Sure, as some commenters noted, there were a few minor inaccuracies/faults… but overall it did the job well in helping introduce people to what git and Github together can do. I can’t embed the video here, but if you click on the image below you’ll be taken to his site where you can view the episode…

Csstricks github video

And if you are over on Github, you can follow me there as github.com/danyork.

Video: How To Create a Simple DocBook document using oXygen XML editor

Recently I’ve needed to get back into creating some DocBook documents and needed to refresh my knowledge of the latest tools. Back about 10 years ago, I did a great amount with DocBook and spoke about single-source publishing at conferences and created a few tools and vimrc macros. However, since that time I’ve not done much with DocBook – and obviously the tools and toolchain have evolved a bit.

In looking around, I’m quite impressed by what the oXygen XML editor can do with DocBook. oXygen looks quite powerful! It’s also got a bit of a price tag… on the other hand, I know that putting together the pieces to create your own toolchain can take a bit of work. The ever-present tradeoff between your time and your money…

I think I’ll certainly try out the 30-day trial to see what the writing experience is like.

This video shows how to create a simple DocBook document using oXygen and certainly makes a compelling argument for how easy the editor can be:

 

Do any of you use oXygen? Have you found it worth the price?

Great Resource -> Felix’s Node.js Guide

FelixnodejsguideWant to learn more about Node.js? Felix Geisendörfer recently rolled out a site with a series of guides to help people get started:

http://nodeguide.com/

So far he has these guides available:

  • Node.js Beginner Guide
  • Node.js Style Guide
  • Node.js Community Guide
  • Node.js Convincing The Boss Guide

and promises more to come. He is nicely using a Github repo for the development of the guides and you can monitor that repo to see what is in development.

Documentation and training are always critical elements of helping people get started with a new language, so it’s great to see initiatives like this one. I’m definitely watching the Github repo and have been reading through his guides already.

Thanks, Felix, for putting these docs online!

Node Tuts – a video podcast tutorial on learning Node.js

In my continued interest to learn more about Node.js, I was recently pointed to an enjoyable set of video podcasts called “Node Tuts” and available at:

http://nodetuts.com

In each episode, host Pedro Teixeira walks you through how to perform some task using Node.js. He uses a combination of the command line, TextMate (to view the code) and his web browser. I have only started working through the series, but so far I have already picked up a few tips and learned about a few new modules to check out.

These episodes are recordings of Pedro hacking away and do include mistakes he makes (and corrects). This actually was okay because it helped me check my own knowledge. There was one show where I thought “he didn’t declare that module” and sure enough he had to go back and correct that. The rawness of the recording, though, was helpful in understanding how you could debug code in Node.js.

I do also like that each episode builds on the previous one (so far). It provides a useful way to expand your knowledge based on what you just learned.

As I mentioned, I am only starting to work through the recordings, but so far I have found them quite helpful!