Last week: Databases

R jargon	Database jargon
column	field
row	record
data frame	table
types of the columns	table schema
collection of data frames	database
conditional indexing	`SELECT`, `FROM`, `WHERE`, `HAVING`
`tapply()` or other means	`GROUP BY`
`order()`	`ORDER BY`
`merge()`	`INNER JOIN` or just `JOIN`

Why version control?

The person who knows the most about your code is you-six-months-ago, and you-six-months-ago are not replying to your emailed questions. -Anonymous

Version control:

Keeps a complete record of changes
Messages stored for every change
You can recall the rational for each step
You can revert back to a previous version of your code (if things have gone awry)
Facilitates collaboration, changes can be developed independently and merged together
With Git, you can back your code remotely (on GitHub), allowing for easy distribution

Git basics

Git allows you to take “snapshots” of the contents of a folder on your machine as you make changes to them

Fix a bug? Take a snapshot
Add functionality? Take a snapshot
These snapshots are dubbed commits
Snapshot details are stored in the subfolder .git.

GitHub

Think of GitHub as the canonical “central copy” of the repository

After any number of commits, you can push the changes from your local repo to the GitHub repo
Pro tip: make commits early and often, and write meaningful commit messages
Only push changes after your certain you haven’t broken the code (think: testing!)
Latter is especially important if others will be using the code on your GitHub repo
GitHub is a common host for R packages (these are more in-development, versus CRAN)

Get a GitHub account

If you do not have a GitHub account, get one (for free) at www.github.com

Install Git

If you do not have Git installed on your computer, install it

Linux: Use your package manager
Mac: visit https://git-scm.com/downloads (or via homebrew, use brew install git)
Windows: visit https://git-scm.com/downloads

During setup, configure Git with your user name (use your full name, not your Andrew ID) and your user email (which should be the same one you used to sign up for your GitHub account)

GitHub first…

In GitHub do the following:

Go to the top-level directory (www.github.com/[your user name])
Click on “+” at top right, and click “New repository”
Name the repository (e.g., “36-350 Project Week 14”)
Provide a short description of the repository (don’t leave completely blank!)
The repository will be public by default
(As a student, you have access to free private repos: https://education.github.com/pack)
Click on “Initialize this repository with a README”… there is no need to “Add .gitignore” or “Add a license”
Click on “Create Repository”

…then RStudio

In RStudio, do the following:

Click of “File”, then “New Project…”
Click on “Version Control”, then “Git”
Provide the full address for the “Repository URL”
Make sure “Create project as subdirectory of:” points to where you want it to (desired directory on your local machine)
Click on “Create Project”

You should see that your Files pane is listing the files in your local repository, including one ending in .Rproj, and the README.md file that was created on GitHub

Updating your repository

To (say) add a new file to your local repository:

Open the new file as you always would
Fill the file with “stuff”, and save it
The file name should show up in the Git pane next to an “M” symbol (for modified)
Continue to modify the file, when you’re done, stage the file for a commit by clicking on “Staged” in the Git pane
Click on “Commit” in the Git pane
In the new window that opens, add a “Commit message”, then click on the “Commit” button
Click on “Push” to push your changes from your local repo to your GitHub repo

Remember

Write meaningful commit messages, but not too long
Usually the reader (you) will not have full context
Commits should be a single conceptual “change”
Commits should be as small as feasible while being complete
Ideally the project is “working” after each commit
Definitely the project is “working” after each push

Merges

When there is more than one person working on the project:

Two commits can be merged by applying the changes one after the other
If the changes are independent this is straightforward
If the changes conflict it needs to be manually merged
After manual merging, commit and push the fixed version

Advanced Git

Branching: you can maintain “parallel” versions of your repository. This is useful for “exploratory” work. These can later be merged into the “main” branch
Bisecting: you can identify the commit responsible for introducing a bug using binary search
Hooks: you can automatically execute tasks based upon git behaviors; can be used to automate testing/deployment

Version Control and Git