100 Days of GitHub

In case you haven’t heard of it before, GitHub is a web-based repository (based on Git), that provides distributed source-code control. A mouthful? Definitely! So, in short, it’s a web-based way of providing source code management which is pretty good! Moreover, there’s plenty of features but luckily, an equal amount of help, not to mention all the general Git resources you can also find.

That’s not what this is about, though; it’s all about me and my wonderfulness :-) Actually, it’s all about how I have somehow managed to make 100 consecutive days of GitHub contributions. If you knew me, it would be all the more impressive because you would realise that the only thing I have ever managed to do 100 days consecutively, is breathe. Why does that matter, though? Well, it’s all about those fields of green. Here’s mine from today:

As you can see, it’s a mix of shades of green. To understand what they mean, you could of course look here, but basically, the more commits (changes you upload) in a day, the darker the coloured block you get, for that day. That’s not the whole story though. The number of commits (think: uploads of changes) you make to create a certain colour does change depending on what you have done in the past. Only make three contributions every day and you might make the second shade of green. Have some good days when you commit more and it might get re-based so that you need to do more to get the same shade. That’s right - do a good job cleaning your dad’s car and next thing you know, you’re doing it every weekend ;-) Here’s an example. Check out what my November period used to look like.

Now look again at the 100 days above. See the difference? OK, so why do I do it apart from the green badges? Well, one reason is that in a small way, I am contributing to open-source; other people’s projects that are freely and willingly shared. There’s so much great advice on the net about this that I won’t repeat it. Just Google and you’ll see what I mean. Another reason is that I think it helps to maintain a consistent approach to trying to code every day and with that, the improvements and progress you can make. Small steps make great acorns…or something. Whatever the reason, though, I enjoy it and that’s all that really matters, I guess!

How about you? Why not sign up and make your own repository?


Hi! Did you find this useful or interesting? I have an email list coming soon, but in the meantime, if you ready anything you fancy chatting about, I would love to hear from you. You can contact me here or at stephen ‘at’ logicalmoon.com