Using Git

Best practices

If you're interested in contributing to developing the GUI, you'll need a GitHub account. After that's set up, you should fork the open-ephys/plugin-GUI repository. Once you've made your changes, submit a pull request to have them merged into the master branch. We will take a look at what you've done and decide whether we want to include it. Try to keep your repository up-to-date by running `git fetch upstream` and `git merge upstream/master` at least once a day (you'll have to type `git remote add upstream https://github.com/open-ephys/plugin-GUI.git` once to specify the location of the original repository). That way, you won't be working on code that's already obsolete.
Branch early, branch often. Once you realize how branching works in git, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
All commit messages should be written in the present tense. For example, you should write `git commit -m "Add new files"`, instead of `git commit -m "Added new files"`. We haven't always been careful about this, but we're trying to do a better job of it.
If you've changed anything major, make your commit messages as thorough as possible. Here are some style guidelines you should adhere to.
GitHub offers desktop applications for Windows and Mac, but we don't recommend using them. It's well worth learning how to use git from the command line.

Type "t" anywhere in the GitHub code pages to activate a search function. It works amazingly well! Probably better than anything on your desktop. (Hit space to get out once you're finished).
Git aliases are a great way to save time. A really handy one is `git config --global alias.s "status -s"`