Speaker Topics - No Fluff Just Stuff
NFJS2025

Git Control of Your Source

By now you've probably heard about Git - the version control system used by the Linux Kernel, Ruby on Rails, Google’s Android platform, and many other projects. Perhaps you've heard something along these lines: “Git is a version control system, and it is more powerful than Subversion in every way. You don't even have to be online to commit” This is true, but it vastly undersells Git.

Git is not the next step in the evolution of centralized source control, following in the footsteps of CVS, SVN, etc. These tools provide centralized history of deltas, where Git provides distributed history of trees of content. In this talk, you will see the advantages of the Git approach:

  • Incredible speed.
  • Local, disconnected operation.
  • Source control workflow customized to your team. Centralized, distributed, or layered, you can build it with Git.
  • Cheap and easy branching, tagging, and merging.
  • Editing and refactoring your commits.

The Git community prefers power to ease-of-use, and so Git’s user interface and documentation can be intimidating. You will learn the straight and narrow path for common, day-to-day Git operations. You will also learn Git’s underlying data model, and get a quick introduction to more advanced concepts including submodules, cherry-picking, and bisection.

As a final bonus, you will see how to use Git on an existing SVN project. You can use Git as your SVN client, and the rest of the team can stay on SVN and not even care.


Jason Rudolph

About Jason Rudolph

Jason Rudolph is a Principal at Relevance, a leading development and training organization specializing in Ruby, Rails, Groovy, and Grails, and integrating them into enterprise environments. Jason has more than nine years of experience in developing software solutions for domestic and international clients of all sizes, including start-ups, Dow 30 companies, and government organizations.

Jason is the author of the highly-praised book, Getting Started with Grails, and speaks frequently at software conferences and user groups. Jason also contributes regularly to the open source community, both as an early committer to Grails, and also as a committer to the Streamlined framework and numerous other Ruby and Rails projects.

Jason holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Virginia. You can find Jason online at http://jasonrudolph.com.

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