[dna-dev] @author tags in our codebase

[Randall Hauch]

I've recently read a suggestions for open source communities that the  
author names are removed from the content.  In the case of DNA's  
codebase, that would mean removing the @author tags.  I'm not sure  
there was a lot of thought put into using author tags vs. not using  
them, but I'd like to reconsider our policy.

What does everyone think about the @author tags?  Please reply to all,  
stating your opinion (or lack of one).

I'll start.  I see a couple of advantages to getting rid of all  
@author tags:
When there are no @author tags, then there is a far smaller notion of  
ownership by the author(s).  On one side of this, the author(s) may  
not appreciate changes to "their" code, and on the other side, non- 
authors may feel intimidated about working on code for which they are  
not an author.  IMO, we want to _discourage_ ownership and _encourage_  
everyone to work in any area of the code they want.
When there are no @author tags, we don't need a policy that says when  
you can add your name to a class/method as an author.  I'm not even  
sure what our policy is, but I think we're not being consistent (other  
than when we create a new class/interface)
@author tags can be inaccurate.  SVN has the true history of who  
contributed exactly what code.

The only benefit I can think of is that the @author tag does help to  
give some notion of who is the "expert" of the class, in case they  
need to be consulted.  However, I don't believe this is really much of  
a reason, since it's far better to consult the SVN history and see who  
actually modified the different parts of the code.  In fact, the  
annotated views in Fisheye even show on many of the lines the name of  
the last person to change it.  For example, see http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-common/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/common/i18n/I18n.java?r=120

What does everyone think about the @author tags?  This isn't an  
official vote (we've never had one), but I would like to hear  
everyone's thoughts, so please reply to all and let us know what you  
think.

Best regards,

Randall

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