Github releases Mac app, developers rejoice

June 22, 2011

Apple Inc.

Github, the popular “social coding” website, has released a Mac app to aid developers in managing their source code repositories. A long time favorite among developers in the open source world for its simplicity, Github has provided purely a web-based experience until now, the only official interaction with their service on a developer machine being via SSH. Other great apps such as Tower have been around for a while, and there’s always Git integration with your IDE but nothing for Github specifically.

No more.

Gone are the days of Googling to find that insane Git command to delete a remote branch, or searching high and low to find that impossibly-hard-to-remember command to pop a commit out of my current branch.

The Github app will do all that for me, and more. There are functions to sync branches with remote repositories using “…a smarter version of pull --rebase && push that reduces merge commits” and the ability to “switch branches with wild abandon.” It’ll keep your changes in each branch stashed nicely.

I’ve found a few bugs in some random corner cases, and I’ve tried to challenge it a couple of times to see if I can break it, but overall it’s greatly simplified my daily Git routine. Hit up the site and check it out.

Article and Image Via Github

About Corey Woodcox

I'm a full-time web developer, part-time hacker and a closet Apple Fanboy. I switched from Windows about 5 years ago, and I only look back when distant relatives need tech support. If I don't have an Apple product on my person, you can safely assume the world will shortly come to an end.

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Just when I bought Tower, too ;D

The app is wonderful, though I haven't committed to Github, entirely yet - I'm still going back and forth between Beanstalk. I'm really impressed with the app, though, even enough that it makes me want to go to Github full time.