Backing Up Your Work

Overview

Right now, your library — every function you’ve written across every lab — lives in exactly one place: the IDE. If that IDE account is lost, if a Chromebook gets wiped, if you simply want to work on your code somewhere else, your work is gone unless you’ve backed it up. Today you’re going to give your library a permanent, recoverable home using GitHub, the tool almost every professional software team on Earth uses to store and share code.

By the end of this activity you will be able to:

• Create a GitHub account.
• Create a repository, including a README and an open-source license.
• Upload a file to a repository using only a web browser.
• Explain, in your own words, what “push” and “pull” mean.
• Describe how a developer pushes a change from the command line.

Phase 1 — Get Your Library Off the IDE

Before you can back anything up, you need a copy of it on your own computer.

1. In the KISS IDE, click the Files page at the top of the screen.
2. Find your library file (yourname.h) in the file list.
3. Download it. It should land in your computer’s Downloads folder.
4. Confirm you can find it — open your Downloads folder and check the file is really there before moving on.

Where did the file end up, and what is it named? (Write the exact filename — you’ll need it in a few minutes.)

Phase 2 — Create a GitHub Account

1. Go to github.com and click Sign up.
2. Enter an email address you can actually check, and create a password.
3. Choose a username. Pick something professional — future employers and college programs can see this. Avoid a nickname you’ll be embarrassed by in five years.
4. Verify your email if GitHub asks you to (check your inbox for a confirmation link or code).

Phase 3 — Create a Repository

A repository (or “repo”) is a project’s folder on GitHub — it holds your files and every past version of them.

1. Click the + icon near the top right of GitHub, then New repository.
2. Name it something clear, like wombat-library or yourname-botball.
3. Choose Public (so it also works as something to show off later) or Private, if you’d rather keep it to yourself for now.
4. Check the box for Add a README file.
5. Under Choose a license, select MIT License.
6. Click Create repository.

Why might a license matter for a file you’re about to make public on the internet? What could go wrong if you skipped adding one entirely?

Phase 4 — Upload Your File (No Terminal Needed)

You don’t need any special software to get a file onto GitHub. This path works on any computer, including school Chromebooks.

1. Open your new repository’s page on GitHub.
2. Click Add file, then Upload files.
3. Drag your yourname.h file from your Downloads folder into the browser window — or click choose your files and select it.
4. Scroll down and click Commit changes. This is the moment your file actually becomes part of the repository’s history.
5. Refresh the page and confirm you can see your file listed.

Your library file now exists in two places. What are they, and what happens to the GitHub copy if your school Chromebook is wiped tomorrow?

Phase 5 — Concept: Push and Pull

In your own words: what’s the difference between push and pull? If two teammates are both editing the same repo, why would they each need to pull before they start working?

Phase 6 — How Push Actually Works on the Command Line

Here’s the sequence a developer runs from a terminal to get a local change onto GitHub:

# one-time setup: copy the remote repo down to your computer
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git
cd your-repo

# ...edit yourname.h in a text editor...

# Stage the change to tell git which files to include.
git add yourname.h

# Commit to save a labeled snapshot of that change locally.
git commit -m "Added the pose list functions"

# Push to send that commit to GitHub.
git push

# Pull anyone else's commits before you start editing again.
git pull

Notice this is the exact same push/pull idea from Phase 5 — just as explicit typed commands instead of browser buttons. git add and git commit happen entirely on your computer; nothing reaches GitHub until git push actually runs.

Walk through what each of the five commands above does, in order, in your own words.

Phase 7 — Connect & Reflect

Every serious software project — the operating system on your phone, the app you use to message friends, the code running self-driving cars — is built this way: many people push and pull changes to a shared, recoverable history, instead of emailing files back and forth and hoping nothing gets overwritten. The license you added in Phase 3 is part of that same reliability story — it’s what lets other people build on your work with confidence, instead of guessing whether they’re allowed to.

Complete the reflection on your own.

1. What is a repository, and how is it different from just a folder on your own computer?

2. What does the MIT License let other people do with your code, and what’s the one thing it requires of them?

3. Explain push and pull to someone who has never heard either term.

4. Complete in 2–3 sentences: “A reliable system keeps a recoverable history instead of trusting one copy. For my own code, this means…”

Extension Challenges

Finished early? Try one or more of these.

Extension A — Write a Real README

• Edit your repository’s README file to actually describe your library: what functions it has, and what each one does. Would a stranger be able to understand your code from the README alone?

Extension B — Make a Second Commit

• Edit your uploaded file directly on GitHub (click the pencil icon), change something small, and commit again with a clear commit message. Then look at your repository’s “commits” history — can you see both versions?

Extension C — Try It From Home

• If you have a computer at home, install git, and actually run the clone / add / commit / push sequence from Phase 6 for real. What was different about doing it for real versus reading about it?

Extension D — Who’s Left Out?

• Not every student has a home computer, reliable internet, or money for paid tools professionals use. If a class assignment required GitHub, a paid IDE, or a fast home computer, who would that leave out?
• What social or economic factors affect who gets to become a programmer? Who’s missing from the room when software gets built, and what effect might that have on what gets built?

Extension E — Ethical Use and the Rules

• If you found someone else’s code on GitHub with no license at all, would it be ethical to copy it into your own project without asking? What does your school’s Acceptable Use Policy say about copying digital work?
• Should there be a law requiring all public code to have a license, or should it be left up to each programmer? Give your position and one reason.
• GitHub connects programmers across the entire world, not just your classroom. How might a tool like this change who you could realistically collaborate with on a project, compared to before it existed?

Extension F — Talking to a Server

• When you pushed (or uploaded through the browser), your file traveled over the internet to GitHub’s servers, potentially thousands of miles away. What has to go right for that to work reliably — address routing, server uptime, your own connection?
• What would happen to millions of programmers worldwide if GitHub’s servers went down for a day? Why do large services like GitHub use many servers instead of just one?

Extension G — Secret Messages

• When you log into GitHub, your password travels over the internet — but not as plain, readable text. Look up what “HTTPS” stands for and why the “s” matters.
• In your own words, why is it risky to type a password into a site that only uses “HTTP” without the “s”?

Extension H — Find the Community

• GitHub isn’t just storage — it’s a community. Public repos can get “stars” from people who find them useful, and anyone can open an “Issue” to suggest an improvement or report a problem.
• Search for 2-3 real public student or hobbyist robotics repositories on GitHub (try “wombat robot” or “botball”). What’s one thing you could learn from how someone else organized or documented their project?