June 2017 Summaries

Over 600 attendees, ranging from new developers to seasoned software entrepreneurs, gathered in London for the second GitHub Satellite event, which offered two days of sessions aimed at enhancing projects through shared skills and knowledge. GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath opened the event by announcing new developments, including the GitHub Marketplace, designed to streamline workflows. Sessions, led by representatives from companies such as Zalando, SAP, HSBC, Bloomberg, and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, were divided into "Build" and "Grow" tracks, focusing on tool and community development globally. For those unable to attend, session videos are available online, and early bird tickets for GitHub's flagship conference, GitHub Universe, are on sale for the event in San Francisco, promising workshops and networking opportunities.

Sentry is an open-source error tracking tool that integrates with GitHub to streamline the process of identifying, prioritizing, reproducing, and fixing software bugs. It provides real-time alerts when new errors are introduced during deployments, helping teams quickly triage issues based on their impact and severity. Sentry efficiently assigns responsibility by pinpointing the likely commit and author responsible for an error, and it facilitates error reproduction by collecting detailed user behavior and application snapshots. Once a bug is resolved, Sentry tracks the fix and can detect regressions if the issue reappears. As part of the GitHub Developer Program, Sentry enhances visibility and collaboration across engineering and product teams, making it a valuable tool for maintaining software reliability.

Review requests on GitHub facilitate collaboration by allowing users to seek input on their work from specific individuals or groups, ensuring that the appropriate people are involved in the code review process. The introduction of team requests enhances this functionality by enabling users to engage an entire team for collective code evaluation. Users with questions or feedback about the code review process on GitHub are encouraged to use the help form for further assistance, as highlighted by Naomi Plasterer in the context of improving collaborative workflows.

GitHub for Unity, now open source and available for Windows and OS X, integrates Git and GitHub features directly into the Unity interface, allowing developers to manage project history, branch experiments, and commit changes without using the command line. The extension supports Git LFS for versioning large files and introduces file locking to prevent merge conflicts, simplifying collaboration among team members. Although the software is in its alpha stage, developers are encouraged to contribute by reporting issues or suggesting features as the team works toward the 1.0 milestone. Contributions are welcomed, and feedback has been appreciated from preview participants, with gratitude extended to the Git LFS team and Unity collaborators.

Git LFS v2.2.0 introduces the git-lfs-migrate command, simplifying the process of incorporating Git Large File Storage (LFS) into repositories, which is particularly useful for managing large files exceeding GitHub's size limits. Users can encounter errors when attempting to push sizable files, as demonstrated by a failed push due to a 1.2 GB file surpassing GitHub's 100 MB limit. The git lfs migrate info command identifies problematic files, while the git lfs migrate import command facilitates their transfer to LFS, allowing for seamless repository updates. This new command can be customized to migrate specific file types, branches, and other criteria, with further details available in the command's documentation and release notes. Taylor Blau, a Principal Software Engineer at GitHub, highlights this feature in the context of his work with Git.

Open Source Friday is an initiative by GitHub to encourage participation in open source projects, emphasizing its importance as both an industry standard and a strategic investment for companies. The program, which began with GitHub employees dedicating time every fourth Friday to contribute to open source, is now open to individuals, teams, and companies, with notable participants like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. It provides a structured approach for contributions, supported by resources to help employees advocate for company involvement. GitHub also offers tools to track and share contributions, reinforcing the idea that supporting the software used by businesses is beneficial rather than purely altruistic.

The GitHub Drip Tee is a 90s-inspired shirt available in the GitHub Shop, featuring glow-in-the-dark green or bright orange fonts, designed to make wearers stand out during summer nights. Ideal for both beach vacations and staying indoors, this trendy tee aims to add a distinctive flair to summer wardrobes. The shirt's unique design promises to make wearers more noticeable and contribute to a vibrant summer experience.

With the GitHub Student Developer Pack, students gain free access to top developer tools, including Sentry, which now offers error reporting for up to 500,000 errors per month with unlimited projects and members. Sentry provides real-time error tracking and crash reports for various applications, delivering detailed information to help identify, reproduce, and fix bugs efficiently across multiple programming languages. This open-source tool integrates seamlessly with GitHub, allowing for streamlined issue creation based on Sentry events. The pack also includes free unlimited private repositories, making it ideal for students’ summer projects.

GitHub is enhancing its partnership with Maven, a national nonprofit focused on helping LGBTQ youth build careers in technology, by committing $100,000 over the next three years to support their initiatives. This collaboration aims to expand Maven's reach across the United States, engaging more youth through game-changing events such as conferences, camps, and hackathons. Maven, which empowers queer youth to network, organize, and educate for social change, organizes programs like Tech Summits, Summer Tech Camps, and the Hack 4 Queer Youth Hackathon, each designed to provide educational and networking opportunities in tech. GitHub's support will include curriculum consultation, volunteering, and co-hosting events, ultimately helping LGBTQ youth gain access to resources and mentorship from tech professionals.

GitHub recently hosted its first Constellation event in Tokyo, attracting 200 software enthusiasts to engage with talks from GitHub engineers, customers, and partners. The event commenced with a keynote by GitHub’s Chief Business Officer, Julio Avalos, who emphasized the company's dedication to the Japanese market and announced that over 180,000 people use GitHub daily in Japan. The event featured both technical and business sessions, including a discussion on open-source software in enterprise development by Hiroshi Nakamura and a talk on integrating DevOps into business by Ryutaro Yoshiba. A significant theme was the cultural shift necessary within organizations to enhance software development practices. Prior to the main event, a community meetup was held with lightning talks from various companies, and video artist Keijiro Takahashi showcased open-source visual art projects using Unity and GitHub. The event concluded with thanks to the Japanese community and sponsor ClassMethod, with an invitation to attend GitHub Universe in the US later this year.

GitHub is introducing two new tools aimed at supporting the maintenance and growth of open source communities. The first tool provides a checklist on the community profile page that compares a project to recommended community standards, helping maintainers manage contributions, documentation, issues, and legal aspects more effectively. Maintainers can access this checklist through the Insights tab under the Community section of the repository header. The second tool simplifies the process of establishing a code of conduct, which outlines community roles, norms, and expectations. This is achieved by offering common templates that can be easily added to a project repository via a pull request, thereby ensuring a clear framework for project governance as the community expands.

Professor John David N. Dionisio has enhanced the learning process in his programming classes by integrating GitHub and Jenkins CI, which provide streamlined feedback mechanisms and familiarize students with industry-standard tools from the outset. By using GitHub's interface, he has shifted from providing handwritten feedback on printed assignments to giving detailed, context-sensitive feedback through comment threads and pull requests, which allows for a more interactive and conversational learning experience. This approach not only introduces students to version control early on but also reduces the focus on syntax errors, enabling Dionisio to concentrate on providing qualitative feedback on code design and structure. The use of GitHub Classroom further simplifies the management of assignments, offering a complete package of instructions, documentation, and CI configuration, thus allowing students to engage more deeply with the material and improve their communication skills around coding practices.

GitHub now supports multiple levels of nested teams within an organization, allowing for a clearer and more manageable hierarchy that reflects a company's structure. This system enables child teams to inherit access permissions from their parent teams, ensuring that repository permissions and @mention functionalities work seamlessly from the top of the hierarchy down to the bottom. For instance, if the Engineering team is granted write access to a repository, all sub-teams, such as Application Engineering and Identity, will also receive that access. However, while permissions and @mentions are inherited, membership is not; members of a parent team like Engineering do not automatically become members of a newly created child team like Security. This nested structure aims to streamline permissions management and communication, and further details can be found in the official documentation.

Set in the picturesque city of Guadalajara, Mexico, the Patchwork event is a casual, hands-on workshop designed for both beginners interested in learning Git and GitHub and mentors eager to guide newcomers. Scheduled for June 29, 2017, at the Wizeline venue, this wheelchair-accessible workshop offers learning modules such as GitHub 101, 102, and 103, catering to various levels of familiarity with GitHub tools. Attendees can expect a relaxed atmosphere without formal presentations, allowing them to learn at their own pace with the support of community mentors, and enjoy food, refreshments, and social activities. Participants will leave with practical experience, such as a merged pull request and a new square on their contributions graph, while mentors get to share their expertise and foster the open-source community. Attendees are encouraged to register beforehand on GitHub, and to communicate any food allergies during the registration process.

GitHub has introduced a new "Open in Xcode" button that allows users to easily pull code directly into Xcode from a GitHub repository, particularly for projects containing .xcodeproj or .xcworkspace files. This feature, announced in conjunction with Apple's latest Xcode 9 release at WWDC, leverages GitHub integration developed by Apple. Once users authenticate their GitHub accounts within Xcode, the button becomes visible on relevant repositories, enabling them to launch Xcode and clone the repository to their local machine by selecting a directory. This new functionality enhances the seamless transition from browsing code online to experimenting with it in a local development environment.

The latest GitHub Enterprise 2.10 release introduces several enhancements for developers and administrators, including customizable workflows, advanced project tracking, and the new GitHub GraphQL API, which offers enhanced data access and real-time updates. This release allows repository admins to tag repositories with topics for better organization and discoverability, while project boards now provide a detailed history of activities for improved team task management. The update also refines the review process by introducing filters for pull request attention and options for managing review dismissals on protected branches. Additional updates include improvements in Git LFS, configuration options for API rate limiting, enhanced Git blame functionality, and security features such as TLS protocol customization. Users can also participate in the Early Access Program for features like hotpatching and geo-replication to optimize performance in geographically distributed teams. The release encourages users to upgrade to leverage these new features and offers a free trial for those not yet on GitHub Enterprise.

Open Source Show and Tell, an event hosted in partnership with Keen IO, invites individuals to share and learn about open source projects at the Google Launchpad in San Francisco on Friday, June 9th. This annual gathering, now in its fourth year, offers an afternoon of talks from members of the open source community, providing an opportunity for both newcomers and experienced contributors to engage in discussions and presentations. The event runs from 1-5 p.m. and includes complimentary food and drinks, with free tickets available for those interested. Attendees are encouraged to submit talks on any open source-related topic, making it a platform for diverse ideas and collaboration.

GitHub Enterprise 2.10 introduces several new features aimed at enhancing the efficiency of both developers and administrators. The release supports customizable workflows and advanced project tracking to streamline the development cycle. The GitHub GraphQL API is now fully integrated, allowing for more precise and real-time data requests. Repository management is improved with the ability to tag repositories using topics, facilitating easier search and discovery. Project boards have been enhanced to offer better organization, tracking, and a detailed history of activities, with options to disable them if not in use. The code review process is refined with new filters for pull request reviews and stricter controls over who can dismiss reviews on protected branches. Additional updates include improvements to Git LFS, API rate limiting, Git blame features, and security protocol management. The release encourages users to upgrade to take advantage of these enhancements and offers a 45-day free trial for those not yet using GitHub Enterprise.

A newly released open data set provides extensive insights into the open source community, based on responses from 5,500 participants sampled from over 3,800 GitHub projects and other platforms. The Open Source Survey explores a wide range of topics, such as what users value in software, how they seek help, privacy preferences, employer policies on open source contributions, and negative experiences within the community. This comprehensive data aims to aid decisions regarding community building, tool development, and research into the peer production system that underpins much of modern technology. GitHub has already begun utilizing the findings to enhance the platform for maintainers, contributors, and users. The data and its analysis are available at opensourcesurvey.org, and feedback is encouraged from those who utilize this resource.

Following a successful event in London, GitHub is preparing for its Constellation event in Tokyo on June 6, which includes a full day of sessions and panel discussions at Tabloid, featuring keynotes from GitHub's Chief Business Officer Julio Avalos and Himi Sato of Women Who Code Tokyo. The event will explore themes like civic tech and digital innovation with industry leaders like Hal Seki of Code for Japan and Chiseki Sagawa from Fujitsu Laboratories. Despite the tickets selling out rapidly, those interested can still attend a community meetup at Super Deluxe on June 5, where they'll enjoy a video performance by Keijiro Takahashi and lightning talks from developers, as well as the opportunity to network with open-source developers and the GitHub team. Attendees registered for Constellation can also collect their conference badges early at this meetup, allowing them to avoid the rush on the main event day.