This repository contains some basic code that implements the Fibonacci sequence in R.
The Fibonacci numbers start with 0, then 1, and are subsequently defined where the Nth Fibonacci number is the sum of the N-1 and N-2 Fibonacci numbers.
This readme provides a narrative account of the git commands, processes, and scenario we worked through to give an example of how a beginner might start to use git in their own work. The choice of the Fibonacci numbers as an example to work with is arbitrary and just serves for an example of a concept that can be coded up and iterated on, all the while using git and GitHub.
You'll want to create a new project for your work in RStudio and a new repository on GitHub. Check the "Create a git repository" checkbox while making your new RStudio project.
Once you've created a new repository on GitHub, you'll see a screen like this:
You'll want to copy and paste those commands from the "push an existing repository from the command line" into the terminal. If you use the terminal builtin to RStudio, you should already be in the directory of your project, but if you use a separate terminal app, you'll need to make sure you're in the project directory.
git remote add origin [email protected]:ctesta01/fibonacciGitDemo.git
git branch -M main
git push -u origin mainOne of the first things we recommend adding to your project is a README.md file. This file will be the public face of your project and what most people see first when looking at your project.
You might take a look at these articles How to Write a Good README and Make a README, or you might take a look at some well-known software projects' READMEs to get a sense of what an important role the README file can play:
- https://github.com/cran/dplyr/blob/master/README.md
- https://github.com/cran/ggplot2/blob/master/README.md
Since the README file is in a file format called markdown, it's helpful to get familiar with the markdown syntax. You can learn more about markdown here: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax
Once you've started a REAMDE, add it to the staging area, write a commit message, and push it.
git add README.md
git commit -m "Add a readme file"
git push --set-upstream origin main The .gitignore file tells git which files it should ignore and not track changes for -- this can be useful to keep sensitive data off of GitHub, to prevent irrelevant files from getting uploaded and confusing anybody, and to keep large files from being version controlled since git works best for handling text-based files rather than binary or compressed data.
If you're on macOS, you'll probably want to add the .DS_Store file to your .gitignore file as this is just a macOS file that is created by Finder in every folder to hold the user's folder view preferences and not relevant to your code.
Typically a .gitignore for an R related project should include at least the following
.Rproj.user
.Rhistory
.RData
.Ruserdata
As incremental progress is made on your code, you'll want to use git in a few different ways.
One way is to just check what the differences in the files you're working on
are. For example, if you've made updates to the fibonacci.R file, you might
run git diff fibonacci.R or check the diff using the button in the git panel
of RStudio.
Once you're happy with the changes that you've made, you can add them to the
staging area or index with git add fibonacci.R. After doing so, you can write a
commit message to go with your work. E.g. git commit -m "Adding a new recursive method".
Now you can push you work with git push.