Hello Gavin,
It looks like you have considered the issue and made up your mind. It is not
hard to establish a authorship tag policy for contributors. Any contribution of
over 10 lines (just an indication) merits mention as an author with an author
tag. It is a very easy policy to follow.
Moreover, author tags are not exclusive. Nothing prevents the creation of a
central team-members page. Author tags provide an easy and *fair* way to reward
for contribution, regardless of the number of contributors.
> Apart from having their name in lights as it were in those few files it
> points out only to other coders that look in those few files that they
> contributed. It also points out that they did not contribute to the other
> 200 or so files and so actually it makes them less worthy than those initial
> contributors that are named in all files. This does not give incentive.
If a contributor makes a contribution to N files, then they are mentioned as an
author in N files, as should be the case in a meritocracy. The fact that they
did not contribute to other files is a mere given of this hypothetical case.
If making less of contributions makes those contributors feel less, then they
should contribute more. Treating all contributors equal, while ingrained in the
collective Apache psyche, is not an incentive, on the contrary, it is an
incentive killer.
> Having multiple @authors and contributors named in these files also takes
> away the limelight from the original @author(s).
I hope that you see the logical flaw in this reasoning. In order to avoid taking
away the limelight away from the original authors, you are ready to penalize all
authors, new and old.
There exists a fair alternative. Add authorship tags as the project moves along.
New author tags can be added in either alphabetical or chronological order.
> And what those other than only contribute in terms of documentation and/or
> applying of patches put into Jira from passers by that contribute a line or
> two to fix a bug? It can also get messy maintenance-wise into the future.
Documents can mention their author or authors. The same procedure applies to
documentation as to source code. As for passers by who contribute a line or two,
they can be mentioned as contributors in a line of comment in the source code.
This line of comment does not carry an @author tag.
Anyway, we can argue about @author tags all day. If you feel strongly about
removing them, then go ahead and remove them.
Gavin wrote:
Having @author tags is great when a program only has that initial author or
when one or two more join in his/her efforts. At that stage it is also
unlikely that the author uses much in the way of attributing their works in
cvs/svn commit messages, issue tracker contributions etc etc. So having the
@author tag is a good way of identifying the origins of the code.
When it becomes a project that comes with all the maintenance overhead of
website, issue tracker, wiki, official releases, documentation as well as
the code itself then moving forward I see things differently.
Supposing over the next 2 years another 15 committers join the ranks
contributing to log4php (well there always hope :) ). We need to look ahead
at what will work best. If 6 or so of those new committers contribute code
to maybe 10 or so existing files and another 4 or 5 of their own then you
suggest they add their names to the @author tags in those files.
Apart from having their name in lights as it were in those few files it
points out only to other coders that look in those few files that they
contributed. It also points out that they did not contribute to the other
200 or so files and so actually it makes them less worthy than those initial
contributors that are named in all files. This does not give incentive.
Having multiple @authors and contributors named in these files also takes
away the limelight from the original @author(s).
And what those other than only contribute in terms of documentation and/or
applying of patches put into Jira from passers by that contribute a line or
two to fix a bug? It can also get messy maintenance-wise into the future.
Having said all the above, I do not want to take away from the original
author(s) and what it is that they achieved before that CLA was signed
handing over all code as donation to the ASF.
I (and Christian no doubt) would be extremely happy to see Marco
Vassura' name on a page on the main website of log4php somewhere, on the
changes-report pages listed with him as having donated the original code
along with any other names from the initial import. Other contributors who
were not part of the original code import would also be listed on the
changes-report page. Perhaps they could also be listed on the main logging
http://logging.apache.org/team-list.html or log4php could create its own
team-list with all @authors listed in the Contributors section.
For the future and moving on, all contributors/committers etc would be
listed in the changes-report for any significant code changes that warrant
listing on there. Any contributors providing patches will do so via Jira so
we will know where that bug fix/feature came from and a committer will
mention there name and link to the Jira issue in their commit of that code.
Having contributors/committers/PMC Members listed in one place on the
website and in the changes-report and in svn commits is I think a better way
to show who is/was part of a project. It also gives everyone involved in
that project equal limelight, in other words no one contributor should be
considered better than another. I think this far better exposure than hiding
away in an @author tag that only coding peers are likely to look at --
remember that much software is created for users, users that are comfortable
with seeing a how to use manual rather than having to look under the bonnet.
As log4php is a project destined to become a sub-project of logging
services, it is in our best interests to interact and align ourselves well
for the future. It is also in this projects interests to be independent in
its own right as far as possible.
I'd welcome your thoughts further on what I've said above before we decide
and move on towards a first release.
Thanks
Gav...
Christian Grobmeier wrote:
Hi,
I have a commit ready for getting rid of the author tags and would
like to apply. Since a user complained about this and I am unsure
about all this legal stuff, I would like to have your "go"s for this
commit. (Please don't check the patch applied to the bug, I have
re-created it)
In my opinion it's enough to give credits in the NOTICE file of the
project. We do this at Commons to. I also think that it is enough to
credit real names, not names like VXA or something.
See also: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LOG4PHP-1
If no other opinions occur, I will go ahead and commit it.
Cheers,
Christian
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http://logback.qos.ch
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