Visayas State University CSci 23 - Applications Development and Emerging Technologies

Module 1: Applications Development

Manage application development using version control.

Estimated Time: 2 hours

NOTE: When counting from 1 to 5, we go in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Similarly, when following a step-by-step

process, it's important to go through each step in sequence without skipping around. If you find yourself stuck
at any point, don't hesitate to reach out to your instructor for help and support.

If a text is in orange, then it is a link. A blue text should be typed as is. Then all red texts should be replaced
by the expected value. Just ensure that you typed in without misspellings.

Learning Task 3 – Creating a Git Repository

Software projects, big or small, need proper management to track progress and changes. This
learning task covers tools that help simplify maintaining and scaling software projects, which are
essential skills as a software developer. Think of them as good running shoes—they help you go faster
and farther. A good computer and internet are required in this learning task.

Git & GitHub

Meet git, your go-to tool for managing projects anywhere, anytime, even on a new computer. It
tracks changes, handles revisions smoothly, and enables real-time collaboration across locations
(Chacon et al., 2014; Git Cheatsheet, 2024; Torvalds, 2005). Now, let's install git!

1. Launch your browser and go to Git (https://git-scm.com/download/win) website.

○ Under the Standalone Installer, click the 64-bit Git for Windows Setup link
○ Once downloaded, complete the installation.
2. Open the Command Prompt:
○ Type: ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C [email protected]
○ When asked “Enter file in which to save the key”, just hit the ENTER key.
○ When asked “Overwrite (y/n)?”, type y and enter.
○ When asked “Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):”, just hit the ENTER key.
○ When asked “Enter same passphrase again:”, just hit the ENTER key.
○ Type: type "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub"
○ Copy the resulting output of the operations.
i. It starts with: ssh-ed25519 ...
3. Sign in to GitHub website.
○ Go to GitHub > Settings > SSH and GPG keys (https://github.com/settings/keys)
○ Click the New SSH key button

Department of Computer Science and Technology

© 2025 Rodney M. Maniego Jr. v1
Faculty of Computing
Visayas State University CSci 23 - Applications Development and Emerging Technologies

○ In the Add new SSH Key page, enter the DCSTPC as the title.
○ Paste your ssh-ed25519 key generated above.
○ Click the Add SSH key button.
4. Go back to Command Prompt. (Do not replace the %USERNAME% part.)
○ Open the SSH folder: cd "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.ssh"
○ Create a config file: type nul > config
○ Open the config file: start config
i. Open with Notepad/Notepad++
○ Copy the text to the config file.
Host github.com
User git
Hostname ssh.github.com
PreferredAuthentications publickey
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
Port 443
○ This config file is a workaround for SSH-based Git operations (clone, push, and pull)
even in restricted networks, by forcing connections to port 443 when port 22 is blocked
by the network administrator.
○ Save your changes

While git lets you manage a project, SSH on the other hand is like a “secret handshake” that
only you (client) and another person (server) know, so whenever you communicate, you’ll know that no
one else can snoop over secure conversations. This is usually done once on every computer, basically,
once for your computers at school, at home, and elsewhere.

GitHub Repository
Git is a program used to manage your projects while GitHub is a service (website) where you
can store your projects online. It is one of the many online services that allows its users to create,
manage, and share projects with their collaborators or to the public (Bell et al., 2014; Pipinellis, 2015).
It is not only used in programming, but it is also used in fields like engineering and other applied fields
(Getting Started with Git, 2024). While this is used practically use by real-world projects, you can also
use GitHub to manage and store your mini-projects. So, your revisions remain accessible and
lightweight without the need of larger disk space.

You just need to run a command to generate a pair of large numbers—your private and public
keys—that are easy to create but hard to crack (Bider, 2018; Silverman et al., 2005). Keep your private
key secure and only share your public key with trusted servers like GitHub for safe communication

Department of Computer Science and Technology

© 2025 Rodney M. Maniego Jr. v1
Faculty of Computing
Visayas State University CSci 23 - Applications Development and Emerging Technologies

over the internet. When you access GitHub using git, it will then verify your identity through a
mathematical challenge based on your public key—but this happens in the background. Cool, right?

In analogy, the internet is a large and interconnected public highway, GitHub is a secure
warehouse, your computer is your virtual office, git is your swift messenger, and SSH is your trusty
bodyguard. If you have a confidential project and you need to securely transport it through a public
highway all the way to a distant warehouse, you need a fast messenger and a reliable bodyguard. That
is how all those things interact. Do you understand it better now?

The point here is that even if you choose to store your data online for convenience, you should
remain as the sole owner of your data and you are the only person that should decide who will be able
to see, read, or modify it.

1. On the top-right corner of the GitHub webpage, click the + icon.

a. Click the New Repository option.

2. Under the Create a new repository webpage, fill up the following information.
a. Repository name (lowercase): company
b. Description: A corporate website for Company Name.
c. Select the Private option.

3. Click the Create Repository button.

4. On your new GitHub repository, click the “ ” Settings tab.
a. In the sidebar, find the “Access” action header.
b. Click the “Collaborators” action item.
c. Confirm your access using a passkey to continue.

Department of Computer Science and Technology

© 2025 Rodney M. Maniego Jr. v1
Faculty of Computing
Visayas State University CSci 23 - Applications Development and Emerging Technologies

d. Under “Manage access” section, click the “Add people” button.

e. Enter “rmaniego” and click “Add rmaniego” button.
5. Click on the “ ” Code tab, then copy your SSH Clone URL.
a. Use SSH and not HTTPS for this and our future activities.

Pushing Changes
For every project, create its own git repository. Then create a local copy in your computer using
the git clone command. Each time you have successfully completed a task, you add, commit, and
push all your changes to GitHub (Pushing Commits to a Remote Repository, 2024). What happens
under-the-hood is complex, but in simpler terms, git takes note of the specific changes that you made
and use this information to track it and recover older versions. Without running add, commit, and push
your changes are just temporary and prone to loss.

1. Ensure that git is installed already.

2. Launch Command Prompt:
a. Go to Local Disk C: cd /d c:/
b. Create a new folder: mkdir projects
c. Open the folder: cd projects
d. Run (only required once): git config --global user.name "Your Full Name"
e. Run (only required once): git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
f. Clone your repository: git clone [email protected]:username/company.git
g. When prompted, respond with the command Y or y to continue.
3. After successfully cloning the repository:
a. Open your repository: cd company
b. Create a file: type nul > CHANGELOG.md
c. Open the file: start .
d. Copy the following contents to the file.
# Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

This project follows [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).

## [1.0.0] - yyyy-mm-dd
### Added
- New `CHANGELOG.md` file for tracking purposes.

Department of Computer Science and Technology

© 2025 Rodney M. Maniego Jr. v1
Faculty of Computing
Visayas State University CSci 23 - Applications Development and Emerging Technologies

4. After updating the file, push your changes to the remote repository.
a. Stage all changes: git add .
b. Commit all staged changes: git commit -m "Add project to GitHub"
c. Push commits to GitHub: git push -u origin main
d. Screenshot the outputs in the Command Line (for email attachments).
e. Clear the screen: cls
5. Create new branches in your repository.
a. Create the dev branch: git switch -c dev
b. Push the dev branch: git push origin dev
c. Create the beta branch: git switch -c beta
d. Push the beta branch: git push origin beta
e. Create the stable branch: git switch -c stable
f. Push the stable branch: git push origin stable
g. Switch back to main branch: git switch main
h. Screenshot the outputs in the Command Line (for email attachments).
i. Clear the screen: cls
6. Once done, submit it to your instructor via email.
a. Attach the screenshots in the email.
To: [email protected]
Subject: [2025-mm-dd] CSci 23 LT3 Surname

Sir Rodney,

Good day!

I am Juan D. Cruz (student #) of your CSci 23 class. Attached are the screenshots for your reference.
Below is the link to my GitHub repository.

https://github.com/username/company

Best regards,

Juan D. Cruz
BSCS-2

7. Ensure proper submission for grading; confirm with your instructor if needed.
8. Delete all your files and empty the Recycle Bin.
9. Close the browser, Command Prompt, and other windows.
10. Shutdown the PC and make sure the AVR/UPS is turned off.
11. Arrange the chairs before leaving.

Department of Computer Science and Technology

© 2025 Rodney M. Maniego Jr. v1
Faculty of Computing
 Visayas State University CSci 23 - Applications Development and Emerging Technologies

Summary
In this Learning Task, you learned about the relationship between the internet, your computer,
GitHub, git, and SSH. Using these tools, you can successfully create and manage projects like a pro!
Next time, we will use this learned knowledge and skills when creating new projects.

References
Bell, P., & Beer, B. (2014). Introducing GitHub: A Non-Technical Guide. O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Bider, D. (2018). Use of RSA Keys with SHA-256 and SHA-512 in the Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol (Request
for Comments RFC 8332). Internet Engineering Task Force. https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC8332

Chacon, S., & Straub, B. (2014). Git on the server – Setting up the server. In Pro Git (2nd ed.). Apress. ISBN
978-1484200773.

Pipinellis, A. (2015). GitHub Essentials. Packt Publishing.

Silverman, E., & Byrnes, R. (2005). SSH: The Secure Shell (The Definitive Guide) (2nd ed.). O'Reilly.

Torvalds, L. (2005). Initial revision of “git”, the information manager from hell [Commit message]. GitHub.
https://github.com/git/git/commit/e83c5163316f89bfbde7d9ab23ca2e25604af290

Getting started with Git. (2024). GitHub Docs. Retrieved April 8, 2024, from https://docs.github.com/en/get-
started/getting-started-with-git

Git Cheatsheet. (2024). GitHub Docs. Retrieved April 8, 2024, from https://docs.github.com/en/get-
started/getting-started-with-git/git-cheatsheet

Department of Computer Science and Technology

© 2025 Rodney M. Maniego Jr. v1
Faculty of Computing