Tools of the Trade
About Git
Git is a version control system. A version control system is a database that includes each copy of our code changes, along with what changed. Git automatically has features that allow multiple coders to work on a file at the same time and then reconcile all of those changes. People can even take bits of code to work on, make changes, and then include those changes in the original code (called branching and merging).
GitHub
GitHub is a cloud-based service that runs Git. It’s one of the most used websites for open source software developers and used by millions of people all around the world to share and collaborate on code.
Watch these overview videos:
Development Toolkit
While there is no special coding or programming skills required to leverage GitCourseware, we do use some of the same toolsets in order to build our textbooks. There are a few options for different tools to use. Note that because of the open nature of both GitHub and many of the tools, you can mix and match devices, tools, and platforms as often as you need to based on your workflow (i.e. you can use the Cloud version on your iPad and the Desktop app on your laptop).
Cloud Only
If you are not interested in installing any software locally, you can use GitHub.dev in order to develop your site completely in the cloud. You can edit your site completely in the browser, and then save and publish from there as well. This also works on tablet devices such as iPads. Note that there is no GUI for this method, so you will be editing your Markdown files directly.
Desktop
There are several tools that can edit Markdown files on your desktop. In order to save and publish to GitHub, the easiest method is to utilize GitHub Desktop though other tools are available as well.
For editing your pages, you can use any text-based code editor. Microsoft Visual Studio Code is popular among developers and is free to use. It is extremely robust with extensive customizability and a highly active development community. Learn more about Coding in Markdown with VSCode. Note that while VSCode does have preview capabilities for Markdown, it is not a GUI-based editor, meaning you have to write your Markdown code on your own.
If you want to use a GUI editor for your Markdown, there are many to choose from. I use Ulysses but it’s not free, and there are a lot of other options out there which you may prefer.