Am 20.10.2020 um 08:59 schrieb Alfred M. Szmidt: > If the program would open with a window/dialog and maybe even asks me to > click or type "I consent" then this is only fine exactly one time for a > given version. > > There is no need to "consent" to using a free software program, > there is no reason to ask such a question.
So we completely agree on that. > And as our non-interactive programs does not print anything on each > startup (but on explicit request via --version / --help) I don't think > it us useful to do this in either of those places (some people may used > a --nologo switch to not have a compiler/linker show a version and > copyright info when they just wanted to compile/link a source). > > That is because it would be annoying to show such an message at each > and every startup, which is why we don't do that. But for long > running programs, it makes sense to show such information to the user. > > There is no reason to fantasie about how one can annoy the user in the > most annoying manner in GNU programs. Agreed. And my point was that for many GUI/TUI programs we just don't know how those are used - they may be "long running" (video editing comes to mind) or short running "just show me that piece of code/text/photo/video/..." - I therefore conclude that whatever is possibly done in a TUI/GUI program about "printing warranty information" should not disturb in any way. The suggested change: > Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2020 13:24:01 -0400 > From: [email protected] (Alfred M. Szmidt) > To: [email protected] > Subject: mention printing of warranty information in GUI programs > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > > --- standards.texi.~1.268.~ Thu Jul 30 22:34:33 2020 > +++ standards.texi Sun Oct 18 19:22:12 2020 > @@ -962,6 +962,11 @@ > screen readers (see > @url{https://www.gnu.org/accessibility/accessibility.html}). This should > be automatic if you use GTK+. > + > +If your program is interactive, please also print the same information > +as for the @code{--version} option (@pxref{--version}) on program > +startup, and also provide instructions how to get more information > +about the copying conditions and warranty details. > > @node Command-Line Interfaces > @section Standards for Command Line Interfaces is for me (when just reading that change as-is) a request to annoy the user, which is not the intention. > What do people think about this? I think that the text either needs more explanation and samples how to do that or should not be applied. If the program has a menu then it should contain an info/version item to show this, similar when it has commands (like vim or emacs), then there should a command to print this. If it is possible to print it to the user without annoying, (like "show in background like a file to view" if no file is open [like VIm does]) then this would be good, too. Simon
