Mark, thanks for the explanations. I personally have no strong opinion on this. Since you are contributing on this, in Apache way, you probably make final call. :)
Thanks, xiaofeng On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 8:56 PM, Mark Hindess <mark.hind...@googlemail.com> wrote: > > In message <9623c9a50910122312y7de4b5d5j7568786e226b9...@mail.gmail.com>, > Xiao-Feng Li writes: >> >> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 8:03 AM, sebb <seb...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > [SNIP] >> > >> > The problem with @author tags in code is that they can very quickly >> > get out of date. >> > After a few years of edits, how much of the original code is left? >> > Have the tags been kept up to date? Does it really make sense to have >> > recognition in the source code? >> >> Last time when this issue was discussed, my opinion is that: >> 1) Any new contributor of a file has the right to remove the old >> @author tag in that file; >> 2) If the new contributor removes the old @author tag, he/she should >> not add his/her own name in it; >> 3) If a file has no new contributor, the original author tag can be >> kept as is, unless he/she agrees to remove the name. >> 4) Agreed with Tim to keep a name list of contributors if their names >> are removed; >> 5) I support to remove all the occurrences of my name in all the >> files, no matter if there is a new contributor of not. > > At what point does a new contributor have the right to remove the author > tag? When converting tabs to spaces? When adding annotations? When > fixing a spelling mistake? Consider: > > http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/harmony/enhanced/classlib/trunk/modules/security/src/main/java/common/java/security/KeyStore.java?r1=821750&r2=821749&pathrev=821750 > > While I appreciate Tim's contribution to this file, I'd question whether > removing the @author tag was really justified[0]. What do you think? > > My goals are: > > 1) To give credit where it is due. As discussed previously, I am in the > process of putting together a more thorough contributors page for the > web site. I hope that this will provide a more visible reference point > for those wishing to cite their contributions. > > 2) To be consistent. While I respect what you are trying to achieve > with list of "rules" for @author tags, I don't see how we will be able > to be consistent without going back over past commits and because there > is too much scope for interpretation with respect to what constitutes a > contribution worthy of removing an existing @author tag. > > In my view the only way to achieve 2) is to remove them all and not add > any again. > >> > Seems to me it's better to have a "contributors" page, for example as in: >> > >> > http://commons.apache.org/email/team-list.html >> > >> > Much easier to manage - and better visibility too. > > I agree which is why I am doing this. > > -Mark. > > [0] Many @author tags have been removed and I've probably even removed some > myself; this one was just the first I found that was questionable. > > > -- http://people.apache.org/~xli
