Pragmatic Version Control Using Git (Pragmatic Starter Kit) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Whether you're making the switch from a traditional centralized version control system or are a new programmer just getting started, this book prepares you to start using Git in your everyday programming.

"Pragmatic Version Control Using Git" starts with an overview of version control systems, and shows how being distributed enables you to work more efficiently in our increasingly mobile society. It then progresses through the basics necessary to get started using Git.

You'll get a thorough overview of how to take advantage of Git. By the time you finish this book you'll have a firm grounding in how to use Git, both by yourself and as part of a team.

Learn how to use how to use Git to protect all the pieces of your project Work collaboratively in a distributed environment Learn how to use Git's cheap branches to streamline your development Install and administer a Git server to share your repository

About the Author

Travis Swicegood is part of the AppDev team at Ning helping to build the platform that lets you create a social network. He's been programming professionally for nearly a decade, but would still be doing it for fun even if he was selling cars for a living.

He is actively involved in the development of several open-source automation tools in the PHP community, including several testing frameworks. He is also an active member of his local programming community, founding Lawrence Programmers. When not learning new programming languages or tools, he's normally found on one of his many bikes, tasting his latest culinary creation, or experimenting with a new home brew.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf; First Edition edition (December 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934356158
• ISBN-13: 978-1934356159
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #165,519 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource on learning Git quickly, December 29, 2008

By	Telman Yusupov (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Git:
- It explains concepts clearly and succinctly without being dry
- It's short: you can go through this book in a day or two.
- It succeeds in explaining what Git is and what the main most useful features are without going into unnecessary details. For anything in depth, Git manual is an excellent complementary source of information.
- The book organized in a way that reminds me of classic K&R "The C Programming Language": a short introductory tutorial showcasing main tools and then more in-depth explanation of these tools in the following chapters. I find this type of organization to be most conductive to my learning process.

The book has proven to be very useful to me in getting up to speed on Git quickly and deserves a 5 star rating.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short, Sweet, and Good, February 2, 2009

By	Larry (Somerville, MA) - See all my reviews

You hear a lot about GIT in the Ruby and Rails world - which makes you wonder: What is so bad about Subversion?

Turns out, nothing. But GIT has some definite advantages which are clearly and succinctly explained in the book. It doesn't assume previous knowledge about version control systems, which is nice for people just getting their feet wet with this kind of software.

Instead of simply telling you how to do something, it also explains why you would want (or need) to do it. And what problems could arise. And how to work around them.

It also explains how you can start using it yourself, even if the rest of your group is still using Subversion. It turns out that GIT can play quite nicely with that popular piece of software - which should encourage hesitant people to take the plunge.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but somewhat disappointing.., March 18, 2009

By	Eitan C. Suez "eitan" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

it's wonderful to have a book on git out early. it's a great way to get started with git. the amount of content is somewhat skimpy. that's fine. i don't necessarily prefer books that are voluminous. but you get to the end of the book and you've gone through all of the examples and you get this sense that you haven't really grokked it. i just watched the youtube video of linus' speech on git at google, and i left with an understanding of the essence of git that i feel i didn't get from the book.