GitHub

You can upload the source code of your apps (i.e., the files you write in the language Swift) to the GitHub web site. Once there, everybody in the world will be able to read the files of your app. In fact, they will be able to download these files and run your app in their Xcode.

I encourage you to use this list to play with the apps written by your classmates.

Create an account.

Create a free personal account if you have not already done so. Here are the accounts that students in the class have already created.

Generate ssh keys.

Follow these instructions. You can skip the first section, About SSH. In the instructions, you have to type only the lines that start with a $. (The $ is called the prompt.) But do not type the $ and the space after it. For example, the command in Checking for existing SSH keys is the following. The ls (lowercase LS) stands for “list”. The -al (minus lowercase AL) stands for “all long”. The ~ is a tilde.

ls -al ~/.ssh

If the output of the above command shows that you have any one of the four files id_dsa.pub, id_ecdsa.pub, id_ed25519.pub, or id_rsa.pub, it means you have already created an ssh key and you can skip to Adding a new SSH key to your GitHub account. Otherwise, proceed to Generating a new SSH key and adding it to the ssh-agent.

In Generating a new SSH key and adding it to your ssh-agent, remember your passphrase. You’ll need it to set up the GitHub client, below.

Adding a new SSH key to your GitHub account tells you to type the command

pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

In Adding a new SSH key to your GitHub account, substep 2, to see your “profile photo” use your browser to log into your GitHub account. Widen the page until you see your photo in the upper right corner, and click on it.

Download the GitHub client onto your Mac.

Download the client from here. Its icon is a silhouette of a purple cat. When you install it, it will ask you if you want it moved to your Applications folder. Say yes. It will also say “Let’s take a minute to set up your computer.” Do not skip this step. It will ask you to login to your GitHub account. Press the “Install command line tools” button.

Create a git repository to hold your Xcode project.

Let’s say you have created an Xcode project named Hello, stored in a folder named Hello on your Mac Desktop. Remember that when you created this project in Xcode, you checked the checkbox for
Source Control: ☑ Create Git repository on: My Mac.
Make sure all the files you edited in the project are saved. The easiest way to do this is to press the triangular run button in the upper left corner of Xcode.

We will create a repository named Hello to hold this project. Launch the GitHub client and pull down its File menu.
File → Add Local Repository…
Choose the Hello folder on your Desktop and press the Add Repository button. You should now see your Hello project listed in the left pane of the GitHub client. If you ever wanted to remove the project from the left pane, you could control-click on it and select Remove.

Repository → Publish
Name: Hello
Description: type a one-line description of your project.
Press the Push Repository button.

Point your web browser at your GitHub page (i.e., one of the pages listed here). You should see a new repository named Hello. You might have to wait a minute, or press the Repositories tab in the page, or even press the browser’s refresh button.

The new repository should contain several folders and files, including a .xcodeproj file. But if you look at the .swift files, you will see that they do not yet contain the Swift statements you typed into Xcode.

Upload your Swift code to the repository.

Go back to the GitHub client and fill in the one-line Summary of the current state of your project under the Commit & Sync button. You can say “This is my first version of the app.” Then press Commit & Sync.

Go back to your GitHub page in your web browser and examine at the files in your project again. Press the browser’s refresh button if necessary. The .swift files should now contain the Swift statements you typed.

You can edit your project in Xcode (hopefully to improve it), and then put the new version on your GitHub page. Go to the GitHub client, type a one-line Summary under the Commit & Sync button, and press the button.

Download the repository as a .zip file

Point your web browser at your GitHub page and select the repository. In the lower right corner of the page, press the Download ZIP button.

Delete the repository

If you ever wanted to delete the repository from your GitHub page, point your web browser at your GitHub page and select the repository. In the right side of the page, click on Settings. (It has a screwdriver and wrench.) Scroll down to the Danger Zone.