Interactive Visualization with Git

Title	Git: Interactive Visualization
Overview	Students learn from an interactive visual git simulator / game. This activity cover both local (on your laptop) and remote (internet-based code repository) Git functionality.
Prerequisite Knowledge	Git: Introduction to Github and Git: From the Command Line or an introductory understanding of what SCM is about, and basic git commands.
Learning Objectives	Students will be able to ... Create a branch. Checkout a branch. Create a tag. Checkout a tag. Merge a branch into another. Rebase a branch onto another. Cherry-pick commits. Use relative commit references to refer to commits. Move branches to a different commit. Detach and move around HEAD. Explain the difference between a branch, a tag, and HEAD. Clone a remote repository. Fetch changes from a remote repository. Merge changes from a remote repository. Rebase changes from a remote repository. Describe the difference between _rebase_ and _merge_. Push changes into a remote repository. Describe the relationship between `git fetch`, `git merge`, and `git pull` Describe the relationship between `git fetch` and `git push`. Delete a remote branch. Push changes into a remote repository after remote history has diverged.

Background:

Is there background reading material?

• All material is provided in this assignment, though references below may be useful:
  • http://git-scm.com/doc
  • Git_Activity
  • Git_Activity_2

What is the rational for this activity?

• Getting familiar with git from the command line is not easy. This activity makes it a game!

Directions:

• Go to tutorial at: http://pcottle.github.io/learnGitBranching/
• Complete all activities under the Main and Remote tabs

Additional Information:

Knowledge Area/Knowledge Unit	SE - Software Engineering / SE Tools and Environments from ACM_Body_of_Knowledge
Topic	Software configuration management and version control
Level of Difficulty	Medium, as the advanced commands become more difficult to follow
Estimated Time to Completion	2-4 hrs
Materials/Environment	Access to Internet/Web and web browser Github account (or any online Git hosting)
Author	Stoney Jackson, Nick Yeates
Source	http://pcottle.github.io/learnGitBranching/
License	The MIT License (MIT) Copyright (c) 2012 Peter Cottle

Suggestions to Open Source Mentors:

Suggestions for an open source community member who is working in conjunction with the instructor.

• Mentors might show what websites and resources (Stackoverflow, IRC, etc) they often utilize when they are stuck or something unexpected happens upon committing or branching.
  • What troubleshooting steps do they use in their head?
  • Do they chat or talk to fellow project-members or work colleagues?

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