January 2019 Summaries

Dependabot, developed by its co-founder @greystiel, is a tool designed to automate the management and updating of open source software dependencies, which are crucial for modern applications yet often vulnerable to security risks. By integrating with GitHub's Security Advisory API and Security Alerts, Dependabot identifies vulnerabilities in dependencies and creates pull requests to address them, ensuring applications remain secure. It handles both direct and transitive dependencies, which can number in the hundreds for languages like JavaScript and Ruby. Dependabot not only automates the identification of security vulnerabilities but also facilitates staying current with new releases by generating pull requests for updates, providing CI pass rates to boost confidence in merging changes. This iterative approach to dependency management reduces the manual workload, with most updates being non-breaking, allowing developers to maintain secure and up-to-date applications with minimal effort.

GitHub plays a pivotal role in the developer community, serving as a collaborative platform for millions of developers worldwide, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Newly appointed to lead the Product Team, the author expresses enthusiasm for contributing to GitHub's mission of being the "home for all developers." GitHub's success is attributed to its vibrant community of users, contributors, and maintainers, as well as its pivotal role in supporting developer products like Visual Studio Code and Kubernetes. As businesses increasingly become software-driven, GitHub provides a secure environment for enterprises to innovate rapidly by connecting with a vast network of over 31 million developers. The platform continues to evolve, focusing on enhancing user experiences, supporting community growth, and fostering secure software development. With significant user and repository growth, GitHub faces challenges in ensuring inclusivity, productivity, and sustainability for open-source projects while maintaining its reputation for ease of use, speed, and reliability. The author is optimistic about GitHub's future and its potential as a catalyst for collaboration and innovation in the software industry.

In spring 2018, the Campus Advisors program was launched to help teachers master Git and GitHub, providing them with 10 hours of self-paced training to become resources for their peers. The inaugural class of Advisors includes educators from various global locations, such as the Sorbonne in Paris and Federal University Lafia in Nigeria. The training emphasizes using GitHub Classroom, automation, and continuous integration tools, fostering collaboration, and helping students create portfolios. Participants like Michael Crabb and Ivone Bennett have found the resources, such as the GitHub Education forum, immensely supportive, while Richard Barnett praised the Classroom Assistant's feature to clone all assignments simultaneously. The training, open to any interested teacher, includes modules on Git basics, individual and group work strategies, and promoting self-directed technical education, with free access to GitHub for schools participating in GitHub for Education.

In 2018, GitHub experienced significant developments, particularly for its Enterprise customers, which were highlighted in the inaugural episode of The Check-In webcast. This 45-minute session offered a recap of major releases from GitHub Universe, including the beta launch of GitHub Actions, SOC 2 Audit and ISAE 3000/3402 compliance, issue deletion, the Content Attachments API, GitHub for Visual Studio 2.6, and the Learning Lab for GitHub Enterprise Server. The webcast, scheduled for February 6 and 7, was designed to accommodate different time zones, allowing participants from Asia, the Americas, and Europe to join at convenient times, thus broadening the accessibility for those interested in the latest GitHub innovations.

In 2019, significant policy changes were anticipated to impact the tech industry, with a shift from the "techlash" of 2018 towards addressing root causes of societal issues often attributed to technology, such as echo chambers and fake news, which have deeper origins. The tech industry was expected to play a crucial role in tackling these issues alongside other sectors, as exemplified by its involvement in climate change initiatives. Additionally, there was growing recognition of the internet's positive attributes, prompting efforts to preserve key values like openness and privacy through initiatives such as Tim Berners-Lee's Contract for the Web. Global cooperation on internet security was identified as essential, with initiatives like the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace gaining traction, despite potential challenges from national security interests. Open source software (OSS) was highlighted as a key component of shared defenses, with increasing support and funding from policymakers anticipated. The year also underscored the need for developers to engage more actively in policymaking, with efforts to reintroduce the Office of Technology Assessment in the U.S. and increased opportunities for policy-minded technologists.

In 2018, machine learning and data science were prominent topics on GitHub, with significant contributions to projects like TensorFlow, which had the highest number of contributors, and PyTorch, noted for its rapid growth. Python emerged as the dominant programming language in machine learning repositories, though other languages like C++, JavaScript, and R were also commonly used. The analysis focused on contributions made throughout the year, revealing that popular Python packages such as NumPy, SciPy, and pandas were widely imported in machine learning and data science projects. TensorFlow was notably used in nearly a quarter of these projects, while other packages like Scikit-learn and Matplotlib were also frequently utilized. Additionally, several projects centered on natural language processing and image processing, underscoring the diverse applications of machine learning on the platform.

GitHub Classroom is utilized by 20,000 teachers globally to incorporate real-world workflows into their teaching, streamline assignment collection, and minimize administrative tasks. The platform organizes course content and student assignments within organizations, and a recent update has introduced support for multiple classrooms per organization, enhancing organizational efficiency. This improvement allows for the creation of multiple sections for teaching assistants and the sharing of common course materials across departments within a single organization, addressing teachers' requests for a more streamlined experience. GitHub Classroom, an open-source project, invites contributions and offers early access to new features for teachers who complete the Campus Advisors training.

GitHub's updated transparency report for 2018 highlights its ongoing commitment to transparency in user data disclosure and content moderation. The report details how GitHub handles requests for user information through various legal channels, such as subpoenas and court orders, while emphasizing the company's practice of notifying users when possible, unless prohibited by gag orders. In 2018, GitHub received a significant number of requests to disclose user information, with a notable increase in gag orders accompanying these requests. The report also discusses GitHub's content removal practices, including government takedown requests and DMCA notices, demonstrating how GitHub strives to balance legal compliance with user rights. The report reflects GitHub's efforts to align with broader transparency principles and contribute to the discourse on platform governance, reinforcing its role in shaping responsible content moderation and data disclosure practices.

GitHub has announced enhancements to GitHub Enterprise, providing a unified platform for both cloud and self-hosted architectures through a single per-seat pricing model for Enterprise Cloud and Enterprise Server instances. New features aim to improve team productivity and repository management, such as force push timeline events for better tracking of collaborator actions, enhanced issue template automation, and improved handling of outdated comments. The platform also offers updates to the "Merge pull request" button that reflect review outcomes without needing page refreshes, highlighted options for repository creation to streamline ownership decisions, and simplified administration across multiple organizations with granular permissions. Additionally, administrators can now enforce policies regarding repository creation and control collaborator invitations, enhancing organizational governance. Users are encouraged to join the quarterly Check-In webcast to learn more about these features and engage directly with GitHub's Enterprise Solutions Engineers.

December 2018's Release Radar highlights several notable software releases from the GitHub community, showcasing a diverse array of projects that have reached significant milestones. Noteworthy releases include fx 10.0, a command-line tool for JSON manipulation with new features like regular expression search; Vault 1.0, which enhances secure secret management with cloud unsealing and OpenAPI specifications; and PyTorch 1.0, a deep learning library introducing a just-in-time compiler and experimental C++ interface. Other releases feature NES.css 1.0, a CSS framework for retro 8-bit aesthetics; Vitess 3.0, with improvements for MySQL database clusters; SpaceVim 1.0, which enriches the Vim editor with IDE-like features; rgbaster 2.0, a JavaScript library rewritten in TypeScript for color identification in images; Kong 1.0, an API gateway with new service mesh capabilities; Flutter 1.0, for developing native mobile apps from a single codebase; fish 3.0, an interactive shell with new combiners and faster commands; and PhysX SDK 4.0, a physics engine with updates for industrial robotics and AI training. The summary reflects the vibrant contributions of the GitHub community, encouraging continued innovation and collaboration.

Devon Zuegel introduces herself as the new open source product manager at GitHub, tasked with supporting maintainers in fostering productive communities. She draws parallels between the growth of cities and open source software (OSS) communities, emphasizing the need for evolution in governance and collaboration as these communities expand. Despite OSS's integral role in technology, it faces challenges such as inadequate resources, communication hurdles, work overload, abuse, limited analytics, asymmetric recognition, insufficient mentorship, and inadequate governance. Zuegel calls for open dialogue with contributors and maintainers to address these nuanced challenges, inviting them to share their insights and contribute to the development of solutions, although the contact form for submissions is now closed.

GitHub Desktop 1.6 introduces new features designed to improve user experience by offering guidance for onboarding, suggesting next steps, and addressing large file restrictions. The update aims to streamline the workflow by providing users with clear guidance on what actions to take, such as adding repositories or deciding between publishing branches and pulling updates. Additionally, the release addresses the common issue of GitHub's 100MB file restriction by alerting users when they attempt to commit large files and offering solutions like setting up Git LFS. This feature, contributed by community member @Daniel-McCarthy, highlights the collaborative nature of GitHub's development process. The team remains committed to enhancing the platform based on user feedback, with the goal of increasing developer productivity and satisfaction.

GitHub has revamped its dashboards to offer personalized repository suggestions through a new third column, updated styling, and a full-width layout. This shift to a full-width design allows for enhanced visibility of projects, facilitating easier discovery for users. The "Discover repositories" page has been relocated under the Explore section, and repository suggestions are now accessible both on the Explore page and in the sidebar of the updated dashboard.

The latest GitHub for Atom release introduces two new features aimed at enhancing the code commit experience by improving diff rendering and providing a commit preview option. Previously, rendering diffs involved processing a large number of DOM elements, limiting the ability to load large or multiple diffs, but now, using Atom’s TextBuffer, performance is improved, allowing for more efficient loading and rendering of large and multiple diffs. This update also offers features such as editable diffs, code folding, syntax highlighting, and multi-cursor edits, making it easier to review and edit code. The commit preview feature allows users to see all staged changes in one pane, facilitating easier review and the creation of meaningful commit messages. User research informed the design changes, resulting in a more intuitive workflow and polished diff view. Future updates will focus on improving pull request reviews, and feedback is encouraged to refine the user experience further.

GitHub has introduced a new feature that allows users to star topics, enhancing the personalized experience by aligning with individual interests in the world's largest software community. By starring topics, users can see their preferred subjects displayed on GitHub Explore alongside related repositories, and these selections are also visible in the "Stars" tab of their profiles. This development aims to streamline users' interaction with content and developers that match their interests, thereby fostering better organization and connection. The feature builds on the existing community-driven topics, which have grown to over 400,000 since their inception, with the GitHub community actively curating descriptions and related content. The initiative is designed to not only highlight relevant repositories but also introduce users to related developers and events, ultimately helping GitHub users discover a wealth of new ideas and projects.

The GitHub Pull Requests extension for Visual Studio Code has received several updates, enhancing its functionality for managing pull requests directly from the IDE. Users can now create pull requests by selecting the target branch and opening them effortlessly, as well as leave suggested edits as comments with an option to apply these changes through patches. Additionally, status checks for pull requests are now visible, indicating whether they are passing, failing, or in-progress. The latest version of the extension can be downloaded from the VS Code Pull Requests Repository, or updated directly within VS Code, offering a streamlined workflow for developers working with GitHub repositories.

GitHub has introduced two significant updates to enhance accessibility for developers: unlimited free private repositories and a streamlined Enterprise offering. With GitHub Free, developers can now create unlimited private repositories with up to three collaborators per repository at no cost, allowing them to work on private projects such as job applications or side projects. Public repositories remain free with unlimited collaborators. GitHub Enterprise now unifies Enterprise Cloud and Enterprise Server into a single product, offering organizations the flexibility to use either cloud or self-hosted configurations at one per-seat price, with secure integration through GitHub Connect. Additionally, GitHub Pro and GitHub Team continue to support professional coding and collaboration needs, while open source contributors maintain full access to public repository collaboration. These updates are part of GitHub's commitment to being the premier platform for coding, collaboration, and community engagement.