--- Paul Sundling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I can see a lot of valid points in the article. I also don't buy the > positive side regarding author tags helping point out who to go to for > help on a particular file. Whatever the final decision, the philosophy > > should be documented on the web site in the section where it talks about > > how to help. There are however two reasons why I think such artifacts > as author tags are good (although I think CVS comments are better if > consistent). > > 1. For non-committers, it gives us warm fuzzies. It's like a little > flag that says I actually made my contribution to open source, like more > > of us out there should. You can't go in CVS and see that people like me > > added a patch, unless a committer actually takes time to actually > mention it without an author tag. If there were some template text, > like "Based on a patch contributed to ASF by [EMAIL PROTECTED] related > to bugzilla # ....." in the CVS log I think that would be good enough.
Most of the time when patches are applied the contributor is mentioned in the cvs commit message. All commits dealing with bugzilla are tagged with something like "Fixes PR 1234" so you can go to the bugzilla page for more info. We also maintain a list of contributors on the website for everyone to see, not just those browsing the javadocs. > > Even though I've had a VERY VERY minor contribution, it was quite a rush > > to have an author tag on a minor support file. It made me feel like a > part of the project and it made me want to get more involved. [I'm > getting into unit testing, so I figure I might make contributions there > first down the line.] I would never want to cause any resentment > against those doing the brunt of the work or claim that I'm on the same > level. At the same time, it's nice to have a little reminder somewhere > that I'm making a contribution, however small. > > 2. There should be some tracking for the origins of code in case we ever > > get attacked by a company like SCO. Maybe there's already some cross > referencing system that I'm not aware of between bugzilla and CVS that > already takes care of this. I guess this is counter to legal protection > > under the ASF umbrella. Let's say I work at Top Secret Corp or Run By > Lawyers Inc. and I submit a patch that my employer would see as > infringing code. It's good code and one of committers (David Graham for > > instance, since I'm replying to his message) commits it into CVS. It > now looks like David was the source for the code and when Top Secret > Corp lawyers started sniffing around it'd be harder to find out the true > > source. I would guess this might end up being a major issue depending > on how the SCO law suit ends. This is another good reason to not accept patches through struts-dev and only through bugzilla. When the committer commits the code they will tag it with a bugzilla ticket number. Bugzilla keeps track of who the patch came from so questions like the above never come up. David > > Paul Sundling > > > David Graham wrote: > > >The @author javadoc tag topic has been discussed on commons-dev > recently > >and Ted brought it up in a recent struts-dev thread so I thought it > might > >be nice to get the Struts community's opinion on it. Some arguments > >against @author tags by Greg Stein can be found here: > >http://tinyurl.com/yrlhu > > > >I'm not too concerned about the legal issues because I don't think > there > >are any. I think it's a good idea to remove all of the tags rather > than > >each person removing their own so that the remaining tags don't > >misrepresent who did most of the work (kind of an all or nothing deal). > > > >Comments? > > > >David > > > >__________________________________ > >Do you Yahoo!? > >Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes > >http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- > >To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
