We’ll be using GitHub as one of our main pieces of infrastructure for this course (we’ll be talking more about the details of why we’re doing so and how it works later). To get started, you’ll need to complete the following:

Sign up for a GitHub Account

The first step is to sign up for a GitHub account. Before you do so, make sure to review the following:

  • Choose a username that is relatively short and professional. This is going to be a public-facing account for you to showcase your work, so a safe assumption is that a future employer might be looking at it one day. You are also going to be building a personal website with a URL that is based on that username (yourusername.github.io), so you don’t want something long or incomprehensible. For reference, Prof. Blevins’s GitHub username is: cblevins and his personal website is cblevins.github.io.
  • Use your university email (ending in @ucdenver.edu) to sign up for an account.
  • ⚠️ Write down your username and password somewhere safe!!! ⚠️
  • Link to sign up for a GitHub Account.

Apply to GitHub Eduation as a Student

GitHub provides students and faculty with a lot of extra services and benefits that normally cost money. Fair warning: their goal is to get you invested in the GitHub ecosystem so that you will then pay for those after you graduate. But in the meantime, it’s worth taking advantage of these benefits. To get them, you’ll need to first apply as a student by following these instructions. It might take a day or two to get confirmed - don’t worry, you won’t need any of this until later in the semester.

Install GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop is a piece of software that more easily allows you to use GitHub services from your computer (rather than online through their website). Follow the first 4:15 minutes of the following tutorial to download and install GitHub Desktop and get it configured.

If you run into issues or need more detailed instructions: