How to download mod from Github for non programmers

[Apeirogon]

A number of new mods currently stored on Github. Newbies to Github have problems to figure out how to download them. This little tutorial should help them to do so.

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Github is a free online repository main point of which is a version control. It can be used NOT ONLY for code, but for every type of files, images, sounds, text, code, maps, etc, anything that can be stored at the computers hard drive.
In the core its work in the same way as copying folder with files and store them elsewhere with different name, but in more.....ehhh 'clever' way. On the first and even on second sight it looks silly, "I have only 3 different folders with different versions in each, "first release", "second release" and "working folder". Its easy to orient in them".
But when your project will celebrate one/two/three years, when it release a lot more than two or three releases, it would become a lot harder to orient in versions. "Something broke in new version, where did was work correctly? Version 1.4.15? 1.3.78? 1.2.92? AAAAAAAAAAAA". Plus it not LITERALLY copy all files, but rather copy all CHANGED files. So it save disk space.

To download code from Github you don't need to create account on it, install git or other external programs. All you need to have is a browser, even default Windows Internet Exp.... Microsoft Edge would suited here.

At the example of Gzdoom repository.....Ohhhh, you dont know what Gzdoom is? Its a source port of one small, unknown game from 1993 which is named Dum...Duum...something like that.

So open this link
https://github.com/coelckers/gzdoom
You should see something like this (used Firefox browser)

Notice that it have big green button in the upper right

Press on it. You should see this menu.

Screenshot_1 — копия (2) — копия.png (14.62 KiB) Viewed 1760 times

Press on highlighter line, "Download as Zip". Browser would show you default "Save file as..." window. Specify folder in which it should save archive, wait until browser download it, and thats it, you successfully downloaded mod from Github. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay Now you can open it in Slade3 (it can open zip archives) or unpack archive and open folder in VS Code, Sublime Text, etc.