**Course Title:** HTML & Web Development Fundamentals: Building Modern Websites **Section Title:** Version Control and Collaboration **Topic:** Introduction to version control with Git **Overview:** Version control is an essential part of web development, allowing you to manage changes to your codebase over time. In this topic, we'll introduce you to Git, a popular version control system widely used in the industry. By the end of this topic, you'll understand the basics of Git and how to use it to manage your code. **What is Version Control?** Version control is the process of tracking changes to a set of files over time. It helps you manage different versions of your code, collaborate with others, and identify changes made to your codebase. Version control systems like Git provide a structured way to manage changes, ensuring that your codebase is well-organized and versioned. **What is Git?** Git is a free, open-source version control system created by Linus Torvalds in 2005. It's widely used in the industry and has become the de facto standard for version control. Git provides a flexible and distributed version control system that allows multiple developers to collaborate on the same codebase. **Key Concepts in Git:** Before we dive deeper, let's cover some essential concepts in Git: * **Repository (Repo):** A repository is a central location where all the files and history of a project are stored. * **Commit:** A commit is a record of changes made to one or more files in a repository. * **Branch:** A branch is a separate line of development in a repository. It allows you to work on new features or bug fixes without affecting the main codebase. * **Merge:** Merging combines changes from one branch into another. * **Push:** Pushing sends local commits to a remote repository. * **Pull:** Pulling retrieves changes from a remote repository and merges them with local changes. **Why Use Git?** Git provides several benefits for web developers: * **Collaboration:** Git enables multiple developers to work on the same codebase simultaneously. * **Versioning:** Git allows you to track changes to your code over time, making it easier to identify issues and revert changes if needed. * **Backup:** Git provides a backup of your code, ensuring that you can recover your work in case of a disaster. * **Distributed:** Git is a distributed version control system, meaning that every developer has a copy of the entire codebase, including history. **Setting Up Git:** To use Git, you'll need to: 1. Install Git on your machine (if you haven't already): <https://git-scm.com/downloads> 2. Create a GitHub account: <https://github.com/> 3. Initialize a new Git repository using the command `git init` 4. Configure your Git username and email using the commands `git config --global user.name` and `git config --global user.email` **Basic Git Workflow:** Here's a high-level overview of a basic Git workflow: 1. Create a new file or modify an existing one. 2. Stage the changes using `git add`. 3. Commit the changes using `git commit`. 4. Push the changes to a remote repository using `git push`. **Conclusion:** In this topic, we introduced you to version control and Git, a popular version control system. We covered key concepts in Git and explained why it's essential for web development. You also learned how to set up Git and followed a basic Git workflow. **What's Next:** In the next topic, we'll dive deeper into Git and explore basic Git commands like `clone`, `commit`, `push`, `pull`, and `branch`. You'll learn how to use these commands to manage your code effectively. **Leave a Comment:** If you have any questions or need help with Git, leave a comment below. We'll be happy to assist you. **Practice:** Try setting up a new Git repository and following the basic Git workflow covered in this topic. You can use a simple text editor to create a new file and track changes using Git. **Additional Resources:** * Git Documentation: <https://git-scm.com/docs> * GitHub Tutorial: <https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/>