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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TAVERNA-897?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=15149519#comment-15149519
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Gale Naylor commented on TAVERNA-897:
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I read the two links regarding using or not using @author tags. I think I agree
with the arguments NOT to use @author tags. Particularly the fact that @author
tags seem to go against the spirit of the ASF, and may imply "ownership" of the
code, making people reluctant to change it (And possibly causing people to ask
questions of the "owner" instead of dev@taverna.)
Regarding the classes in taverna-osgi and taverna-engine written by others: is
there a reason we might need to contact them, e.g., if a question came up? Can
we keep track of past contributors outside of the code instead?
> Remove @author tags?
> --------------------
>
> Key: TAVERNA-897
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TAVERNA-897
> Project: Apache Taverna
> Issue Type: Bug
> Reporter: Stian Soiland-Reyes
> Assignee: Stian Soiland-Reyes
>
> Some of our Javadoc contain @author tags - which are reflected in the HTML of
> the JAvadoc - for instance
> http://taverna.incubator.apache.org/javadoc/taverna-language/org/apache/taverna/scufl2/api/package-summary.html
> http://taverna.incubator.apache.org/javadoc/taverna-osgi/org/apache/taverna/configuration/ConfigurationManager.html
> Apache NiFi's argument against Javadoc @author tags:
> http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/incubator-nifi-dev/201505.mbox/%3CCAGHyZ6LcrZ1aPMUjJ%3DrJkkK19Cmveew7PmTUKuWprK_bz3jxmg%40mail.gmail.com%3E
> – which I find myself agreeing with.
> Older discussion also says Apache projects should stay away from @author tags:
> https://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/www-community/200306.mbox/%[email protected]%3E
> A simple argument is that under ASF all of the Taverna committers are equally
> responsible or attributable for all the code base - even if a particular
> person made a class to start with.
> Maintenance of @author tag is error-prone (how big a change before you add
> yourself? What about thousands of files with no @author?)
> Also there's the question of what is the purpose of the @author tag beyond
> attribution (it shows up in the HTML representation), when any questions
> about a class should be taken to dev@taverna - not to that person.
> The git log should provide attribution about who made a file, but sadly after
> various folder/repository moves and version control system changes this is a
> bit tricky (you need to use {{git log --follow}} and hope for the best). So
> there is an counter-argument for keeping the @author tags - specially as
> coming up in TAVERNA-894 lots of the classes of taverna-osgi and
> taverna-engine were initially written by David Withers and Tom Oinn, and
> neither joined the Apache Taverna project.
> What are your views?
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