Prior to this session, I was a bit unclear about the path the commit took to end up at the origin. I wondered if perhaps a change in a branch was first merged to the master, and then from the master, it was then pushed off to Github. It was clarified to me that commits from branches are pushed directly to github, and then await a merge to the github repo. I know either path would get my changes to github, but I wanted to make sure my method was in line with what everyone else was doing. I'm glad to get resolution on this.
A few things came into better focus. This was my first GPS session. I went into it fairly blindly, and quickly figured out how it worked and what it was about. The process of navigating and driving became clear. This was my first google hangouts screenshare. I didn't know if the navigator could move the driver's mouse cursor and type on the other's screen. I learned that the navigator is in a read-only position. I learned more about Google hangouts as well - specifically how to enable the screenshare, how to stop broadcasting to everyone, and I used the chat feature for the first time. I learned that if you encapsulate text in the chat with asterices, it makes the words bold. That was a bit of an accidental discovery during some copy and paste bewteen driver and navigator.
In addition to learning about the GPS process and its mechanisms, I also gained some knowledge about git functions. I learned that: I created a branch with "git branch branchname" and then switched to that branch with "git checkout branchname", but there is a shortcut - I could just use "git checkout -b branchname" that condenses both of my commands into one. Through normal use of git in this session, and also watching my partner use it, my familiarity with git solidified a bit more. I feel quite comfortable with the pieces of it that we have used so far, and that makes me feel pretty good. Prior to the GPS this evening, I was thinking to myself that I really need to invest some time into figuring out exactly what I don't know and getting better at those things. I still intend to do this for good measure, but the GPS contributed to that goal.
I asked my guide about the path commit takes (regarding the confusion I described above), and I received clarification. Questions I asked my pair were just simple things related to our challenge (things like: did we remember to do this? did we push the right branch? etc). Mostly all the discussion pretained exclusively to completing the challenge. My pair and I communicated at the end of the session, making sure we both understood what we did, and we needed to do individually to complete the session (writing this reflection).
I am feeling pretty good about git at the moment. One of the only things that I can think of that confuses me is: if you are in a branch and create a file, then you switch branches, the file vanishes in the directory. I do a 'pwd' to verify that I am in the same place on the filesystem where I created the file, but it's not there. I completely understand why git doesn't want me to see it: because it doesn't actually exist in the branch where I don't see it. I am just curious where git tucks it away - perhaps in a hidden directory or some journal it keeps for version tracking. I'll figure it out though. It's an itch I'll need to scratch.
I really enjoyed my first GPS. My pair seemed to be right on the same level that I was, meaning we both were familiar with everything, and we both tripped over a couple things and figured them out together. Our guide popped in with timely and useful information to keep our progress moving and to address things we had previously wondered about. The mechanism of the GPS (hangout video chat) worked very well, and is a great collaboration tool I am glad to learn about. The interaction between me, my pair and our guide was very comfortable and respectful. There was no feeling of competition or uneasiness. In summary, I feel like together as a pair, we were better able to accomplish our challenge than individuals as two pairs of eyes and two brains quickly identifies and resolves little syntax errors (for example) that might cause an individual to get hung up longer. I'm very pleased with the experience, and I look forward to this collaborative process we'll be doing a lot more of!