I think this is a great step, for several reasons -- both corporate and user-facing.<p>(1) It is true that this is more likely to turn GitHub into a generic file-dump place similar to DropBox. GitHub's infrastructure is sufficiently good to handle this, and this new addition is unlikely to disrupt the workflow of veteran users. However, since it is likely that some companies will use GitHub for file dumping, GitHub will be justified in charging companies a fee for particularly large repositories -- capitalizing on the file-dumping. I sense an alternate revenue stream coming in for GitHub.<p>(2) I've often run into situations in which I had written a small script and wanted to quickly turn that into a GitHub repo. To do so, I'd have to go through the online interface to initialize a new repo, and then make a folder on the command line, type a few commands, etc. Though it's a very short process, I couldn't understand why I couldn't just use the online interface to type up a readme and then drag-and-drop my script into the repo. The update smooths this work experience.<p>(3) Obviously, it'll make GitHub far more accessible to less technical users -- some users are intimidated by the Git learning curve, and this update makes them much more likely to use GitHub (and then slowly learn the ropes of using it via the command line).<p>(4) By inviting more non-technical users as in (3), it becomes more likely that (1) succeeds.
This feature has interesting synergy with GitHub Pages, where .md files can simply be dragged-and-dropped into a folder to get published as a blog post on the web.<p>It may be enough to remove the must-be-programmer-who-understands-git barrier to entry, anyways.<p>EDIT: GitHub Pages still requires specific file naming for posts and YAML front matter, so it's not perfectly non-programmer friendly. It might be a good idea to write a tutorial as a blog post/screencast, though.
This is actually a pretty good step. Most programmers are already using some kind of UI/command line to push to Github, but having a simple drag and drop for uploads will get those who are less technically inclined on our teams to actually use version control more. At least I really hope I can stop dealing with the "asset_1", "asset_1-2", "asset_1_USETHISONE" that some people do.
All I want is a Wiki search.... pretty please.
Wiki file uploads (images) at very minimum that aren't commited to git. The process now is to create an empty issue, drag the file over, copy the URL and paste it into the Wiki page.
To clarify, by "upload files" they mean adding and committing new files to a git repository. At first I thought there was some other way to add files to a project.
I like how Github is taking note about the lack of innovation, and doing the right thing; but I'd like to see the blog post announcements AFTER the feature is implemented. It's like saying "Oh, you're thirsty? I'm going to give you a glass of water, but not yet, next week"
Finally you can have all kinds of creatives using github without telling them how to use the command line or even the github desktop apps. Thank you github.
Can anyone explain what's going on here <a href="https://github.com/wardowsmcc/badass" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/wardowsmcc/badass</a> ?
Awesome... I can think of 4 or 5 times I have been away from my laptop but still need to update a photo for a client. Glad to see this, otherwise I would have never known it had been added!<p>Slightly brings up an interesting point. With native apps, I usually review release notes upon updating. Webapps get to release whenever they please to little notice of the end user (for better or worse). With releasing new webapp functionality, bug fixes, etc "continuously" I think some cool bits get overlooked...
Why doesn't github have a proper discussion forum per project? I don't consider the "issues" a proper discussion forum.<p>That seems to me like it would be much more valuable, specially for community projects.
I'd really like to know the inside details: what changes have they made to release new features quickly like this? Have they been bogged down in process? Or just lack of pressure to release improvements?
Already tried it, and I absolutely love it!<p>It was something we were waiting for for a long time. Now GitHub is light years ahead of its competitors because of this -seemingly small, but actually important- UX change.
I'm a bit confused, this is a simple git add or some sort of integration with git lfs they released last year?<p><a href="https://git-lfs.github.com" rel="nofollow">https://git-lfs.github.com</a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/vvoyer/status/700575291433836544" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/vvoyer/status/700575291433836544</a>
this
Just to be clear, this appears as if it's some kind of web wrapper to `git add file.ext && git commit -m "<my message>" && git push`?
Fun fact: you can hack this right now by dragging and dropping a file (ie. image) into the issues submission box and then using that URL in your code to display images.
Wait, so you couldn't add a file via the web before? I haven't used github except for pulling the source to projects but I would expect this was feature #1.
As someone who makes a lot of casual edits via the web interface, I was really sad that to fix an image file once, I had to install the desktop client and clone the entire repo. This is a great change.