On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 08:14:30PM -0700, Bradley M. Kuhn wrote: > I suggest modifying the tutorial at https://spdx.org/ids to address > the issue head-on, with perhaps a explanation on why you would carry > license information in individual files at all. The *only* reason > it's useful to do so is in case the file gets separated from its > larger work.
This point is already addressed in [1] with: SPDX IDs make code reuse easier. If your project only has license info in a top-level LICENSE.txt file, it's harder for others to reuse your code. They may not know what license applies once the file leaves your repo. An SPDX ID is located within each source code or documentation file, and follows that file into downstream projects, making license compliance easier. I think that covers your point fairly clearly. Perhaps it could be raised into a more prominent position? Looking over the landing page again [2], I feel like the question-words distinctions are not as clear as I initially felt. For example, a very similar idea is covered by WHAT's “Needs only one new comment line per file” and HOW's “In each file in your project, just add a single line…”. And WHAT's “Human-readable and machine readable” also shows up as a section in the why-detail page [1]. Perhaps we should drop the WHAT block, put all the motivation in WHY, and leave the implementation details to HOW. The consolidated WHY could have reasons like: WHY use SPDX IDs? Easily declare licensing for each source file, even when the file appears out of context. Declarations are compact, precise, and machine- and human-readable. Read more about why to use SPDX identifiers The two-sentence paragraph would also fit the pattern used by the existing HOW and WHERE entries, replacing the list-like current WHAT and WHY entries. Cheers, Trevor [1]: https://spdx.org/ids-why [2]: https://spdx.org/ids -- This email may be signed or encrypted with GnuPG (http://www.gnupg.org). For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy
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