Git setup and installation app

[desandro]

See https://github.com/desandro/lazyweb-requests/blob/master/002-git-setup-app.mdown for details.

[meirish]

Doesn't the github mac app (http://mac.github.com/) do all of this for you?

[jfsiii]

A shell script could execute the steps listed at http://help.github.com/mac-set-up-git/. Then the user would just have to open Terminal and enter curl -L http://example.com/path/to/install.sh or similar

The script could test to see if it could do it the easy way (via homebrew) or if it needed to curl the files. Utilities like pbcoby and open should make this quite user-friendly.

[desandro]

@meirish I just checked. It does set up your Git author name, git author email, github username and github password, but it does not install git, nor does it set up SSH keys -- as far as I can tell. This may require further investigation

@jfsiii A shell script would be a good place to start. Probably be the best solution until an app can be produced. But the end product has to be an app with a GUI. No Terminal, no copy/pasting commands. On her MacBook Air, using that imprecise touch pad, @kallie had the darnest time copy/pasting commands.

[meirish]

@desandro - it looks like it does set up an SSH key if you don't already have a ~/.ssh folder. The key it creates is called github_rsa.pub and the entry in the Github Account Settings SSH page is called "GitHub for Mac - [computer name here]". No dice on the installing git though - at least they have packages for git that are a double-click install :/.

[jfsiii]

@desandro pbcopy prevents the need to copy.

[desandro]

@meirish thanks for following up. I can confirm. I uninstalled Git, created a new OSX user, and downloaded GitHub for Mac. The app does create the GitHub versions of SSH keys. The app also runs Git somewhere, but it doesn't install it so it may be used from the command line. So the app can use Git, but you can't open up Terminal and try git status.

GitHub for Mac is a tremendous resource, but I'd rather not rely on it. I'm not a fan of several UX considerations it employs:

• Sync instead of push and pull
• Adding .git folders not inside the relative project path

After going through the review, I feel this Git-starter app is all the more necessary.

[desandro]

@jfsiii yes sir! But I'm talking about no copy/pasting what-so-ever. The first initial steps should be

• Download the "app"
• Open it
• Magic ensues...

No opening up terminal and copy/pasting that initial command to run the shell script. "Open up an app called Terminal" scares people. Copy/pasting command lines scares people.

If this process can be done by clicking a link on a web page, or a button somewhere, I'm for it.

[jfsiii]

I'm not sure how copying/pasting can be entirely avoided. Specifically:

1. Copying the API key from GitHub https://github.com/settings/admin
2. Pasting a new SSH key on https://github.com/settings/ssh

I'm now testing a shell script which:

1. Downloads and installs git
2. Sets up SSH keys
3. Configures the git and github variables

Theoretically, a GUI could be created to pass the required values (full name, email, user name, toke) to the script, but as I said, I don't know how to avoid having the user copy certain information from their GitHub account pages.

[desandro]

Nice! Sounds like we're on the right path.

My bad on "no copy/pasting what-so-ever." I meant "no copy/pasting command lines what-so-ever."