Github is a web site for common git repositories. It has been around for a while, and I have been a member since before they became public. Basically you can create your git repos on the site, add code and whatnot, branch from other repos and then sync up. I use it mostly as a backup for my current project, which is a private repository.

Anyway, I wake up this morning to see that there is a new little item on the Github dashboard, “Gists”. I click on the link and get brought to a page that looks like Pastie. I’ve always been confused about how long the code stays around at Pastie. I would have like to post some links to Pastie stuff in the blog, but honestly, I haven’t trusted it to be around. So, maybe Gists existed on a more permanent basis. I started hunting around Github for some documentation on Gists, with no luck.

After doing some Googling, I landed on this video about Gists. It’s pretty informative. Basically, a gist is a simple way to create a small repo directly from the Github website. Looks like they are permanent, but don’t quote me on that.