contents.html

How to create a pull request

(a beginner's guide to use Github)

So you want to join the Python Sprint, this quide will help you get started and know what you need to do to create a pull request (so you can contribute to cool open sourse project)

First you need a Github account if you don't have one

First you need to sign up for `Link Github <https://github.com>`. Github is a popular site for open source project to share the code and allow people to contribute to it. So it has a machanism to let people **frok** the repositries (which is "folder" containing all the files for the project), **clone** it to their local computer, **commit** to the online repositries then send a *pull request* to combine your contribution to the main one. Sounds complicated? Dont worry, we will walk you through it. So now go to `Link Github <https://github.com>` to get a **free account**.

.. image:: LondonPython Sprints_internal_1.png

Frok a repository (like a piece of cake!)

Now you have a Github account, after logging in, go to the repository (or repo for short) that you are trying to contribute to (like, pandas). First thing you need to so it to **fork** it so you can have a copy for yourself, kinda like forking a piece of food to your own plate. (Just kidding)

After you **fork** a repository, your copy will appear under your account haveing the same repo name (thus a **frok** is created). Reason for doing that is, since so many people is going to contribute to the open source repo, it make sense not giving permission for anyone to change the content of the original repo, so rather we will work on our own copy and ask for a **merge** by **pull request** whcih we will explain later.

To **fork** a repository, just click the **fork** button on the top right

.. image:: LondonPython Sprints_internal_2.png

Now you can clone yourself... I mean your repo

Okay, we have our lovely version of the repo at Github, but how can we work on it? Although Github provide certain way you can make changes to the content of your repo via the web interface, most of the project we need to do it on a local machine (like, your laptop).The way to go is to **clone** your online repor on Github to your computer. You may do it using Git whcih you can get it here: `<https://git-scm.com/downloads>` or Github now have Github Desktop whcih is also a local version of Git:`< https://desktop.github.com/>`

Git is a version control software that will *record* different version of a project folder so it allows you to:

1. you changed your mind and want to roll back to an earlier *save* or

2. you want to try something out and make an other *save copy* so you keep the original version.

It's like when you play video games and make some safty save just in case you make some stupid mistake or make multiple save files so you can see different endings :-)

Once you have install Git (or Github desktop) you can go to your repo (that's right, the repo that is under your account) and press the green **clone or download** button and copy the link there. With the link, you can use the GUI to clone the repo from Github to your machine or another way to do it is to use Git Bash ( or any other command line enviroment) following the steps below:

(To be continued)