Open Source South Carolina - GitHub Workshops

Two free workshops focused on GitHub, lead by Brent Laster.

Join the next Open Source South Carolina Meetup, as we'll focus on two highly applicable and popular topics that every technologist, regardless of experience level or focus area, needs to know more about - Copilot and Codespaces.

Each session will be an extended, hands-on workshop designed to teach you exactly what you need to know to get started, or maximize what you already know if you have some experience.

*Note, both sessions are FREE, but registration is required. We are also capping registration to ensure adequate assistance is available for those in attendance, so move quickly if you'd like to attend.

Event #1

GitHub Codespaces

Tuesday morning, March 12

9:00 am - 12:00 pm ET

Workshop description:

GitHub Codespaces is a powerful, cloud-based, customizable development environment integrated within GitHub. It can simplify and accelerate development as well as enhancing collaboration. This training will equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to effectively use this tool for any coding situation.

In this hands-on workshop, open-source author, trainer and DevOps director Brent Laster will provide you with the understanding, background, tips and tricks, and best practices and strategies you need to make the most out of codespaces. The following topics will be covered. Labs will also be available for each section.

Setup: Signing up for Codespaces trial.

Workshop schedule:

Part 1: Quick introduction to GitHub Codespaces

• What Codespaces are and how they work
• Navigating the Codespace interfaces
• Working with content in Codespaces

Part 2: Basic operations and customization

• Customizing codespaces to better suit your way of working
• Installing extensions
• Working with source management in codespaces

Part 3: Working with Dev Containers

• Desigining codespaces for specific types of development with dev containers
• Installing features and extensions into dev images
• Running your codespace from a dev container

Part 4: Working with Templates and Ports

• Managing ports in a codespace
• Publishing a codespace from a template

Part 5: Sharing and collaboration with Codespaces

• Sharing links to codespaces
• Collaborating with multiple users in a codespace

Wrap-up

Event #2:

GitHub Copilot

Tuesday afternoon, March 12

1:00 - 4:00 pm ET

Workshop description:

GitHub Copilot is a Generative AI implementation based on the popular ChatGTP model and developed in collaboration with OpenAI. It helps developers create, debug, optimize, translate and explain code in any commonly used programming language (Go, Python, Javascript), any commonly used framework (Kubernetes) or other functional processes (SQL). In this course, you’ll have an opportunity to learn about what GitHub Copilot is, how it works, and do hands-on labs with all of the areas mentioned above.

As well, you’ll learn how to best interact with Copilot to achieve getting the best suggestions and results from this powerful tool. The following topics will be covered. Labs will also be available for each section. Those will require a signup on GitHub for a trial of Copilot.

Setup: Signing up for Copilot trial.

Workshop schedule:

Part 1: Quick introduction to GitHub Copilot.

• What Copilot is
• How Copilot works at a high level
• Benefits of using Copilot for code generation and completion
• Installing Copilot

Part 2: Basic usage

• Basic Copilot usage
• Prompt creation and engineering
• Chat interface

Part 3: Copilot use cases and examples

• Using Copilot to simplify, explain, and document code
• Test generation
• Regular expressions
• Translating code
• SQL
• API discovery and manifests

Part 4: Dealing with issues in Copilot

• Deprecation and out of date information

Wrap-up

About Brent:

Brent Laster is a global trainer, author, and speaker on open-source technologies, as well as an R&D DevOps director at SAS. He is also the founder and president of Tech Skills Transformations, LLC – a company dedicated to making technology understandable and usable. Throughout his career in software development and management, Brent has always made time to learn and develop both technical and leadership skills and share them with others. He believes that regardless of the topic or technology, there’s no substitute for the excitement and sense of potential that come from providing others with the knowledge they need to accomplish their goals.