June 2011 Summaries

Jonathon has won a giveaway and will be traveling to Wellington for the Kiwi PyCon event, where he will enjoy local experiences like having a few drinks, tasting Maori cuisine, and engaging with Python programming. The organizers express gratitude to everyone who participated in the contest and assure followers that more opportunities to win will be available in the future, encouraging them to stay updated via the blog and Twitter.

Requests for new highlighting lexers, additional language extensions, or directory exclusions in a repository's stats graph prompted a consolidation of scattered code into a unified library, which has now been made open source. This initiative allows users to contribute by addressing unrecognized file extensions or advocating for support of less common programming languages. The project, available on GitHub, invites collaboration and contributions from the community to enhance functionality and support for diverse coding needs.

GitHub for Mac offers a user-friendly interface for managing GitHub repositories directly from a Mac, streamlining the process of setting up accounts, viewing commit histories, and managing branches. Its features include a branch selector for quick switching, automatic stashing of changes, and a Sync Branch button that efficiently handles merging and rebasing without rewriting merges. The app automatically updates itself and is powered by open-source projects like libgit2 and Chameleon, ensuring smooth and fast operations. This initial release, GitHub for Mac 1.0, marks the beginning of ongoing development and is available for free, reflecting GitHub's commitment to enhancing user experience on Mac platforms.

An extra ticket for Kiwi PyCon in Wellington, New Zealand, is available for late August, and interested individuals can participate in a chance to win it by forking a provided gist and answering a few questions by Sunday, June 26th. Along with the ticket, the winner will receive a T-shirt from the organizer. The winner will be announced the following week, and the blog will feature more opportunities to win tickets to other conferences in the future. The opportunity is presented by Kami Richey, known as @kamzilla.

The v3 API has been released, completing a significant phase of development, and while it remains in a beta period for further feedback and adjustments, it introduces several new features. Notable additions include commit comments, raw Git access, and enhanced management capabilities for commits, blobs, and trees, as well as improved handling of downloads and pull requests, including the ability to convert issues into pull requests—a feature exclusive to the API. Some functionalities are entirely new compared to v2, and the goal of these updates is to provide comprehensive access to GitHub's ecosystem via the API, supported by improved developer documentation.

GitHub has revamped its documentation to make learning Git and GitHub more accessible and engaging, focusing on a user-friendly design and a structured approach to learning. The redesigned GitHub:Help serves both as a troubleshooting resource and a gateway to discovering new GitHub features and Git techniques. Its goal is to facilitate learning, whether users are creating their first repository or managing sensitive data, ensuring that both beginners and experienced users can enhance their understanding and skills effectively.

GitHub Services underwent a significant update that resulted in clearer, more consistent, and better-tested code, thanks to contributions from Faraday. The update also introduced support for Redmine, marking the 51st service integration. Developers interested in improving existing hooks or adding new services are encouraged to consult the Services README, along with existing hooks and tests, for guidance. The changes were documented by Risk Olson, also known as @technoweenie.

A new feature allowing users to transfer repositories between accounts has been made accessible, removing the need to contact support, though some limitations apply. The target account cannot already have a repository with the same name or a fork in the same network, and if the repository is private, the target account must have at least one unused private repository available on a paid account. Private forks are not transferable, only root private repositories, and redirects cannot be set up, requiring users to manually update their repository's remote URL. After considering user feedback, the feature has been restricted to only allow transfers into organization accounts where the user has admin rights.

GitHub has introduced new API v3 functionality, allowing developers to manage various elements such as Users, Followers, Public Keys, Repositories, Forks, Collaborators, Watching, Organizations, Members, and Teams through a RESTful API. This release is accompanied by updates to the developer documentation, providing guidance on using the new features, understanding authentication with OAuth2, checking rate limits, employing JSON-P callbacks, and navigating breaking changes during the beta period. Additionally, API v3 includes support for Issues 2.0 and Gists, encouraging developers to create innovative projects on the GitHub platform.

GitHub is offering an online Git training course on June 13, conducted by Matthew McCullough from Ambient Ideas, designed to quickly educate participants on Git in a convenient setting. The course includes six 50-minute sessions covering the essentials of Git and practical everyday commands, running from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm EST, with pricing set at $195 for individual students or $435 for three students. Participants have previously praised the course for its clarity, professionalism, and effective teaching, highlighting the engaging instruction and comprehensive coverage of topics such as Git rebase.

Scheduled for June 8, 2011, the site underwent maintenance at 20:00 PST to restart several Redis servers in order to increase limits, resulting in a brief downtime not exceeding 10 minutes, during which both the site and git access were unavailable. Following the maintenance, an update confirmed its success, as communicated by Ryan Tomayko.

On June 9, 2011, a drinkup event will be held at The Lookout in the Castro, coinciding with the second Thursday of the month and welcoming visitors attending WWDC. Participants are invited to enjoy a complimentary beer, with the gathering starting at 8:00 PM at 3600 16th Street. The event is organized by Kami Richey, who encourages both locals and visitors to join the social occasion.

Stephen O’Grady from Redmonk presented a talk titled "Survival of the Forges," where he analyzed the main software forges: Sourceforge, Google Code, GitHub, and Microsoft’s CodePlex. During the presentation, he highlighted GitHub's rapid rise to dominance in the software hosting and sharing landscape, despite being relatively young at just three years old at the time. The presentation underscored GitHub's intention to maintain its leading position among developers and companies. The full presentation can be accessed via the link provided, and it is noted that GitHub is a client of RedMonk.

GitHub has launched an "About GitHub" page now that the statute of limitations has expired on certain past actions by its employees, allowing them to share more details about the team. This new page offers insights into the GitHub team, provides access to company logos, and reveals the number of beers available on tap at their office. Visitors are also invited to interact with the Octocat mascot in a playful manner, showcasing GitHub's lighthearted and open company culture. The announcement was made by Zach Holman, a member of the GitHub team.

A group, including Aman Gupta and others known by their usernames @tmm1, @atmos, @sr, and @defunkt, is visiting Amsterdam and plans to attend the amsterdam.rb meetup at 17:00, followed by a social gathering at De Bekeerde Suster at around 21:00, where they can be identified by Octocat stickers. They will be hosting the event and covering the cost of the drinks.

GitHub has introduced a new feature allowing users to block or report abusive individuals, aiming to enhance the collaborative experience on the platform by offering better control over interactions. Inspired by similar functionalities on social networks like Twitter, this update adds a settings gear on every profile page for user management, addressing previous concerns about online bullying. GitHub acknowledges past instances of abuse that may have negatively impacted users' experiences and expresses a commitment to further integrate and expand these control features for improved user satisfaction. The platform encourages feedback and reporting of disruptive behavior to support its mission of creating a positive, collaborative environment.

CodeConf 2011 marked a successful beginning, paving the way for the next event, PyCodeConf 2011, which aims to explore the future of Python. Details regarding tickets and additional information will be released shortly, and interested individuals are encouraged to follow @pycodeconf on Twitter for updates. The announcement was made by Chris Wanstrath, who is also known by his Twitter handle @defunkt.