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I need help getting back into development (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 week ago by jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org to c/programming@programming.dev

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A little background: Through my teens in the 90's I did a lot of the things you may expect. I was a script kiddie on mIRC, made a tank game in Unreal Engine, and did some Quake modding. From 2002-2004 I landed a job doing Java web dev, SQL, and overall database administration because my father's friend needed someone that could do that. I was ok at the job, but not great. Being young, my hobby that turned into a 9-5 made me want to stab my eyes out and I quit.

With that said, I can understand a lot of what's going on, but it doesn't "click" anymore. I spent 20 years as a career machinist, but I physically can't do that anymore. Here's the rub - my twin brother is a brittle diabetic and can't work (lots of other stuff going on as well), and our mother is getting old (father passed this year). The only reasonable way forward that I can see in order to be able to support my brother is trying to get back into development.

When I stopped, subversion was what we used. I'm trying to understand Git, but it's a giant conceptual leap. I guess, what I'd like to hear from you all is a way to jump back in as quickly as possible in such a way that it may be a career.

Thanks

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[–] RonSijm@programming.dev 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

When I stopped, subversion was what we used. I’m trying to understand Git, but it’s a giant conceptual leap.

It's probably not 'that much of a leap' as you imagine. If you're looking at Git tutorials, they're usually covering all kinda complex scenarios of how to 'properly use Git'. But a lot of people barely care about 'properly using Git' and they just kinda use it as a substitute for SVN... You create branches, you merge them back and forth, and that's about it.

Like if you want to contribute to an open source project, all you have to do is create a fork (your own branch in SVN terms) - commit some stuff to it, and create a pull request (request to have your changes merged) back to the original branch. git pull is just svn update - getting someone elses commits

Not saying there aren't more complex features in git, or that learning git properly isn't worth it, just saying, I don't think you have to see it as a 'giant conceptual leap' that's preventing you from jumping back into programming. Easiest approach just to get started would be probably to just download a GUI like Sourcetree or Fork, and you just kinda pretend you're still using SVN - approach wise