Github next 3 strategic moves
This year , under the global sanitary crisis circumstances, Github satellite was online. However, even if the 2020 conference was virtual, announcements towards developers were stone-concrete.
This year’s Satellite, our first virtual conference, is about giving communities tools to come together and solve the problems that matter to them,” GitHub wrote in a post.
Github discussion: collaborate outside the codebase
Github acknowledges that as developers we contribute to the code beyond simply coding. The questions or topics we may rise are also a big part of improving the code (new features, brainstorming, …).
There are moving discussions from the usual “issues” threads to a separate space: discussions. They intend to create a place where teams can contribute and keep a track of if out of bugs and issues.
It’s close to a professional social network where questions and answers can be marked, upvoted, tagged.
To give a boost to that new feature, Github will also add discussion contributions to the users’ contribution graph.
👉 beta with limited open source communities (soon open to more projects)
Github Codespaces: virtual coding environment
That was my favorite one! The simple “clone or download” button is being replaced by “code”. When you’re in a repo, you’ll be able A new button is coming up “Code”. When you’re in a repo you will be able to open it in:
- Github desktop app
- Favorite IDE
- Codespaces
The last option is the most interested one. We can all relate to that ONE repo we wanted to use but we literally spent hours setting up the environment. Well, Codespaces is kicking this pain out.
Codespaces is a cloud-based development environment. It’s a complete VS Code IDE running in your browser in a virtual machine. By choosing to open the code there, in a matter of a second, a fully working environment is set up and the dependencies required are imported. All VS Code features (colorization, quick fix…) are present and you can add any extension you wish. There are built-in debugger and runner (with all your dotfiles automatically imported). Everything is made to make you feel like home. And of course, as it is Github, everything is integrated. You are automatically logged into your account. So from Codespaces you can push and commit your code.
💰 Pricing for Codespaces has not been finalized. Code-editing in the codespaces IDE will remain free.
Github code scanning: embedded security analysis
Code scanning enables every git push to be scanned automatically. The result will be directly added in the pull request.
Github wants to make security simple for developers to higher the adoption of security check good practices. By default code scanning leverage codeQL (semantic analysis engine). However, Github is working on partnerships with other security analysis tools from their market place.
This feature is already available in beta and free for any open source projects. That’s a big move for Github
👉 beta are avaiable
Github Satellite 2020 proved once more that Github is literrally eating up the software development market. They are going towards an always more integrated environment to make devs’ life easier and win their adoption!
Thanks for reading 😉
