Later, as often as you wish, you can get updates by going
into the poissfit directory and saying
:; git pull
In the present situation, this is a win, because the software
is a moving target. There have been several updates in the
last 48 hours. You don't need to lose sleep over whether you
have the latest version. Just do `git pull` and you're all
set.
Here's an even bigger win: If you have made local changes,
git will merge your changes with the upstream changes. If
there are no conflicts, it works amazingly smoothly.
Git is what we call a version control system. It works for
all sorts of projects, from the very small to the very large.
-- I use it for practically everything I write (programs,
text documents, and everything else, even when I am the
sole author.
-- Big projects, including very big projects with lots of
contributors, use git. Otherwise it would be a huge mess,
with various people stepping on other peoples toes.
A file of notes with frequent git commits makes a rather
nice electronic lab notebook. It provides a timestamp for
the entries, which sometimes comes in verrry handy, e.g.
if there is a patent priority dispute.
This is double-especially handy if there is a team of students
are working on the same project. Use it for the lab notebook
and for writing up the final report.
====================
As with many fancy things, 90% of the value comes from 10%
of the features. Do not try to learn git all at once. Start
with the minimum set of features you need:
-- git clone (necessary, but not often)
-- git pull
-- git diff
-- git commit
++ maybe a few others