Category 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/

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!

Google’s Python Class Provides A Great Introduction

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Want to learn python? It turns out that Google has put together a great series of lessons, videos and exercises that will help you get started quickly with using Python. You can get to the courses at:

http://code.google.com/edu/languages/google-python-class/

Very cool to see. A hat tip to the Hacker News mention of a blog post from Hartley Brody where he pointed out Google’s site.

P.S. Google also has a C++ class and a range of other tutorials and presentations available from:

http://code.google.com/edu/languages/

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…

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

Great Resource -> Felix’s Node.js Guide

Felixnodejsguide Want 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!

Video: Intro to Node.js by Ryan Dahl at SF PHP Meetup on Feb 22, 2011

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Here’s a great video introduction to Node.js by creator Ryan Dahl at the San Francisco PHP Meetup Group on February 22, 2011. He steps people through building apps in a great style: