Make your space on GitHub!

Install the desktop client (app) ~~https://desktop.github. com/~~
- The older (CLEARER!) version 223 app is MUCH better in my opinion.
  - Mac: https://central.github.com/mac/latest
  - Windows: https://github-windows.s3.amazonaws.com/GitHubSetup.exe
- While you're at it, why not install their allied text editor, atom https://atom.io/.
Make an account on github.com (the desktop client will prompt you on launch; or you can go directly in a browser).
- Link your desktop client to your GitHub account by typing your username and password into it.

Fork (click at upper right) any repo you want to interact with, on its GitHub.com page.
- For instance, the course https://github.com/MPO624/MPO624-2018.
Clone your fork to a working copy on your local machine.
- To do this, open the GitHub desktop client (app), and hit the + symbol at upper left, choosing Clone.
- You will have to select or create the directory name you put it in, on your own computer.
  - This folder will be special: it will have some hidden files in there (under .git) the do the verstion control, keeping track of all those branches and merges. This all helps you keep local verison control for yourself. It also facilitates sync with your Fork online (a form of backup), and Update from... the upstream master that you initially Forked your copy of the repo from.
  - Naming is worth a lot of thought. How will all this fit into your larger intellectual life (as mapped into your computer)? For myself, I think Jupyter notebooks are a huge future, and it is nice to have them all in one folder tree. So I will use the name (home)/Jupyter/MPO624-2018.

I found it helpful to illustrate these relations in a visual space, with the Upstream Master at upper left, my Fork in the GitHub.com cloud at upper right, local machine ways of working with the files at the bottom, and the Client as the hub that connects them all. See it here.
Repository "branching" concepts (based on git's command-line names for things) are nice and clear at: https://learngitbranching.js.org/

Other git clients I have heard recommended