Adding any code you write to GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, etc. will be very valuable to you in the long run, especially if you are new to the game. Below is a list of the four main benefits I believe using remote code repositories should have for your growth and development as a web developer.
- Learning version control
Learning version control is something we should all be familiar with nowadays. Whether you’re applying for a job at a company that uses one of the three big ones (GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab) or TFVC and SVN, at some point you’ll be required to have some familiarity with version control and remote repositories.
The Academy does not teach version control, at least not the schools I know. No student I’ve ever talked to has ever said: “we learned about version control” or “version control is part of the curriculum”. This is a huge problem for academia, to confront this by learning it yourself.
- Storage.
When I started building websites/pages, I had no idea what version control was. I was distracted. Version control for me was saving files over and over again with different names like index.html, index1.html, index2.html and putting them on 3.5-inch floppy disks. It was an old-school version of source control.
The ability to store your code in a remote repository is great, especially if you need to go back and make changes, copy it for use elsewhere, or restore it if your local files are corrupted.
3. A building block
There are many companies today that won’t hire you without some type of online code presence, it’s unfortunate but true. Whether it’s a portfolio or a repo on GitHub where they can see the quality of your code.
Your code may not be the best in the world, but at least it shows that you are putting your code out there for others to see, and that’s the hardest step in overcoming imposter syndrome when it comes to code quality.
4. Frame of reference
I was skeptical about using GitHub for personal code and projects until Detroit Labs co-founder Nathan Hughes told me during a workshop that it was very valuable, and they were right. I started using GitHub in 2014, my first commit was on April 10, 2014, and my first fork was on June 25, 2014.
I’m not saying that the quality of my code was bad, but it’s amazing to see where I was and where I’ve come. Branching out repositories and adding small code snippets to branching out large open source projects and creating my own open source projects. It’s always great to see your accomplishments, remote code repositories are perfect for that.
I hope this helps you determine how you are going to store and preserve code in the real world. Trust me though, it will definitely pay off in the end.