> I don't know whether this was a symptom, a remedy, or a cause. Isn't the
> fact these tags needed to be removed some telltale? I'm just wondering,
> since you seem to advocate this as a good community pattern.
I fully admit that I suggested it after seeing what was going on in Avalon,
and no one in James had a problem. We removed them from the development
trunk, and as we change files in the stable branch, we try to remember to
remove them as we go.
Many (most?) @author tags, even in the Java distribution, have become
nothing more than legacy markers. Some of the people listed as the author
of a class aren't even employed at Sun anymore. Even if they are, they
likely aren't the ones still maintaining or developing that code. Perhaps
we don't have access to the internal source control system for Java, but
everyone can browse the CVS for an ASF project to see who has been doing
what to any code for which an @author tag would matter.
Some negative aspects of @author would be the impression that the author
"owns" the code, and reluctance on the part of others to make changes to
"someone else's" code.
Positive aspects of @author are ... umm ... ?
Speaking of "good community pattern[s]" ... what are considered good and bad
patterns? That would be an interesting discussion, and perhaps something to
record for incubator. What problems have people encountered in their ASF
communities? What has worked/not worked? What forms of behavior are
acceptable/unacceptable? Can technical debate go too far? How do you
resolve differences/conflict?
--- Noel
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