I was able to successfully fork, update and make a pull request on a GitHub repository! For this self-taught programming hobbyist this is a "BIG DEAL!"

I followed the instructions about forking a repository using the octocat tutorial example:

https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/working-with-forks/fork-a-repo

Following that tutorial got me over the fear of screwing things up when I updated the HTML file with some Lorem Ipsum text.

So now I was ready to try doing an actual "fix" to a real repo.

https://github.com/Apress/beginning-cpp20

The official repo is missing some source code files for chapter 7, files that use import instead of #include.

Again, following the octocat tutorial I forked and cloned to local the repo. Added files/folders and tried to do an update to my repo fork, and was denied access!

After a bit of thought I believe adding the original repo as an upstream source was the cause. So delete my local repo and start the fork process again, this time NOT adding the upstreams.

And now I could update my GitHub forked repo and then add a pull request.

If/when the author(s) acknowledge the pull request will hopefully be simply a matter of time. Whether they accept my changes or not is kinda moot.

Now I feel like "I Are Programmer! Beep-boop-beep!"

I know most of the regulars here already know how to do this forking and pull requests, but as I said to me this is a big deal. I was able to do something in just a couple of hours that at first glance seemed to be arcane and above my meager capabilities and understanding.

This was a lot simpler than I thought, to be honest. I balked at doing this because the process looked to be so difficult when it wasn't.

Here's the pull request, if'n anyone is interested:

https://github.com/Apress/beginning-cpp20/pulls

congrats!

Its not bad, the problems with git are the convoluted terminology combined with the people that tend to run the repositories. The terminology is worse than talking to a unix sysadmin, and the people that run it know it inside and out and have no mercy for beginners, combined with their ingrained NEED to set up something convoluted and overengineered. All in all its a good tool that has often, at least in my experience, been ruined by people :)

That "no mercy for beginners" is very evident, and was making it hard to learn simply how to do git forks.

That octocat tutorial is a major resource IMO that makes the first time jitters easier to deal with. I "broke my cherry" with that setup, so when I forked the Beginning C++20 repo and was denied push access after making my changes having done it before made the experience less painful and frustrating. I could quickly review what the potential cause(s) might be. And as it turned out I guessed correctly!

Now I am a bit more confident using git, still not even remotely an expert. But I now can be less apprehensive in learning more.