[dna-dev] Re: @author tags in our codebase

Sergey Litsenko litsenko_sergey at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 15 16:45:47 EST 2009


Let me clarify - it's not precludes efforts. I'm just saying that it is optional - if author tag exists - fine, if not - fine too. 
I'm not completely against removal of author tags - I'm just seeing it from diferent prospective - in case it's needed to get full list of contributors - we may automate that process of getting list of contributors - without restricting these tags - thats all.

Sergiy


________________________________
From: John Verhaeg <jverhaeg at redhat.com>
To: Sergey Litsenko <litsenko_sergey at yahoo.com>
Cc: dna-dev at lists.jboss.org
Sent: Friday, 16 January, 2009 4:29:27 AM
Subject: Re: [dna-dev] Re: @author tags in our codebase


I'm not completely sold on this, but I don't really have much of an argument against it either, beyond worrying that potential contributors might not feel they're getting "enough" attribution without the direct tie-in between the source and their names.  Not sure if I understand Sergey's comments about accepting contributor efforts - how does this preclude those efforts?  Other than that, I'd give a +1.

John Verhaeg
Red Hat, Inc.
(314) 336-2950

----- "Sergey Litsenko" <litsenko_sergey at yahoo.com> wrote: 
| 
| 
| -1
| It is optional - would be better to allow keeping authors tags while automating process of getting full list.
| 
| On one hand, I'm not sold on the idea that if the author tag will be removed it might help to brought more commiters. If  I see some issue in the source code and I know how to fix it - I'll provide a patch/fix whetever I'm in the "magic list" or not. 
| 
| The only question that might be asked:  are OSS team members interested in accepting such contributor's efforts or not? 
| It's about mentality and maturity of committers as well as part of OSS
project's culture established by team members  - e.g. responding to
user questions, issues, etc - in e-mails, users forums, etc and welcoming user's opinions on how things should work (functional requirements). Also you can use something like following: "@author DNA Expert Group"
for classes/packages designed / developed by group of authors.
| 
| Generally, I believe that everything that is part of Java Language specification (e.g.) and/or part of general practices is valid and justified to be part of any source code.
| 
| On the other hand, since it's possible to automate process of getting list of autors from both - SCM repository and source code/POM - maintenance would not be that hard, and IMO efforts should go that way rather than removing tags. I bet that I can find some maven plugin or develop my own to automate that process. For example, http://www.statsvn.org and http://stat-scm.sourceforge.net are good starting points.  
| 
| I will vote "+2" on the ability to automate process of getting full list of contributors (maven report plugin) and makit it part of distribution and Maven project site.
| 
| Sergiy
|  
| 
| 
________________________________
From: "dna-dev-request at lists.jboss.org" <dna-dev-request at lists.jboss.org>
| To: dna-dev at lists.jboss.org
| Sent: Wednesday, 14 January, 2009 6:43:27 PM
| Subject: dna-dev Digest, Vol 10, Issue 5
| 
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| Today's Topics:
| 
|    1. Re: @author tags in our codebase (Randall Hauch)
|    2. Re: @author tags in our codebase (Vatsal)
| 
| 
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------
| 
| Message: 1
| Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:03:23 -0600
| From: Randall Hauch <rhauch at redhat.com>
| Subject: Re: [dna-dev] @author tags in our codebase
| To: JBoss DNA <dna-dev at lists.jboss.org>
| Message-ID: <160467FE-4D64-4943-BBAC-3D9535FD670C at redhat.com>
| Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
| 
| We never really came to a consensus on this question, and I'd like to  
| try to do that.  To be clear, here is the proposal:
| 
| 1) Remove the @author lines from the code, and instead rely upon SVN  
| as the official master record of individual contributions
| 2) Change the Eclipse preference files to remove the @author lines  
| from the code templates
| 3) Add a AUTHORS file to the distribution(s); this file will contain  
| the names and email addresses for all contributors, and can even allow  
| a contributor to describe their contribution if they so desire.
| 4) Change the headers to remove the "@author" wording and to replace  
| it with "See the AUTHORS file in the
| distribution for a full listing of individual contributors."
| 5) Change the POM files to include the AUTHORS file in each  
| distribution.
| 
| The AUTHORS file would look like this:
| 
| Randall Hauch (rhauch at redhat.com)
| John Verhaeg (jverhaeg at redhat.com)
| Dan Florian (dflorian at redhat.com)
| Stefano Maestri (stefano.maestri at javalinux.it)
| Serge Pagop (Serge.Pagop at innoq.com)
| Michael Trezzi (michael at mathwizard.org)
| Alexandre Porcelli (porcelli at devexp.com.br)
| Sergiy Litsenko (litsenko_sergey at yahoo.com)
| 
| Note that unlike the @author tags, this file will list all  
| contributors, and the names of new contributors will be appended to  
| the list by the project lead.  (No names will be removed from this  
| file.)
| 
| I would prefer to hear from every contributor, so please respond with  
| +1 if you agree with this proposal, 0 if you don't care, or -1 if you  
| want to keep the @author tags.  If you vehemently want to keep the  
| @author tags and names in the source file, please say so.
| 
| Best regards,
| 
| Randall
| 
| On Nov 18, 2008, at 3:33 PM, Randall Hauch wrote:
| 
| >
| > On Nov 18, 2008, at 2:52 PM, Stefano Maestri wrote:
| >
| >>
| >> Randall Hauch wrote on 17/11/08 22:17:
| >>> 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.
| >> May I ask where?
| >
| > I knew someone was going to ask. :-)  I had to go back and look, but  
| > here are a few:
| > http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4216011961522818645&ei=8o0YSbiFOY6qrgLC2PnLDQ&q=poisonous+people
| > http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/Coding+Conventions
| > http://subversion.tigris.org/hacking.html#other-conventions
| > http://blogs.sun.com/ahe/entry/author_tags
| >
| >>
| >>>
| >>> tags:
| >>>
| >>>  1. 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.
| >>>
| >> +1...but is really @author tag intimating someone, or giving  
| >> ownership
| >> to some other? Quiet frankly not for me.
| >
| > I hope it doesn't discourage people from contributing and diving in  
| > wherever they want.  BTW, it's quite possible that no matter what  
| > our policy, some people may not like it.  For example, if we were to  
| > adopt a policy of NOT including @author tags, some people may refuse  
| > to join the community because they see the @author tag as proof they  
| > worked on it.  It takes all kinds of people. :-)
| >
| >>
| >> Anyway I agree on the _discurage_ownership and _encourage_everyone to
| >> work in any area, so if it can help, remove @author tag.
| >>
| >>>  1. @author tags can be inaccurate.  SVN has the true history of who
| >>>     contributed exactly what code.
| >>>
| >> +1
| >
| > IMO, this is perhaps the biggest justifiable reason.  Its rubbish if  
| > its not up-to-date, so it seems far better to not have @author tags.
| >
| >>
| >>>
| >>> 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
| >>>
| >> abosolutely better to use fisheye...if fine people of JBoss.org would
| >> also mind to upgrade it to a more recent version it would be even
| >> better. Also Jira integration may help a lot.
| >>
| >> I would just add that if we decide to remove the tag we have to  
| >> change
| >> also the license information at the beginnig of any file which say:
| >> /* 2
| >> <http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/graph/GraphI18n.java?r=598#l2 
| >> >
| >> * JBoss, Home of Professional Open Source. 3
| >> <http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/graph/GraphI18n.java?r=598#l3 
| >> >
| >> * Copyright 2008, Red Hat Middleware LLC, and individual  
| >> contributors 4
| >> <http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/graph/GraphI18n.java?r=598#l4 
| >> >
| >> * as indicated by the @author tags. See the copyright.txt file in  
| >> the 5
| >> <http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/graph/GraphI18n.java?r=598#l5 
| >> >
| >> * distribution for a full listing of individual contributors.
| >>
| >
| > Yes, we'd have to update the headers.
| >
| > Best regards,
| >
| > Randall
| >
| 
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| ------------------------------
| 
| Message: 2
| Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:13:23 +0530
| From: Vatsal <vatsal.avasthi at gmail.com>
| Subject: Re: [dna-dev] @author tags in our codebase
| To: dna-dev at lists.jboss.org
| Message-ID:
|     <c82836c60901132343w54b690a9ha9c183e5ee61d019 at mail.gmail.com>
| Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
| 
| Sometimes it is fun to see your name in author tag of a project at a later
| date when the project has matured but my vote would be for Randall's
| suggestions due to practical & maintenance reasons discussed earlier, so a
| +1 from me for this proposal(though I am not a contributor yet :) )...
| - Vatsal
| 
| On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 3:33 AM, Randall Hauch <rhauch at redhat.com> wrote:
| 
| > We never really came to a consensus on this question, and I'd like to try
| > to do that.  To be clear, here is the proposal:
| >
| > 1) Remove the @author lines from the code, and instead rely upon SVN as the
| > official master record of individual contributions
| > 2) Change the Eclipse preference files to remove the @author lines from the
| > code templates
| > 3) Add a AUTHORS file to the distribution(s); this file will contain the
| > names and email addresses for all contributors, and can even allow a
| > contributor to describe their contribution if they so desire.
| > 4) Change the headers to remove the "@author" wording and to replace it
| > with "See the AUTHORS file in the
| > distribution for a full listing of individual contributors."
| > 5) Change the POM files to include the AUTHORS file in each distribution.
| >
| > The AUTHORS file would look like this:
| >
| > Randall Hauch (rhauch at redhat.com)
| >
| > John Verhaeg (jverhaeg at redhat.com)
| > Dan Florian (dflorian at redhat.com)
| > Stefano Maestri (stefano.maestri at javalinux.it)
| > Serge Pagop (Serge.Pagop at innoq.com)
| > Michael Trezzi (michael at mathwizard.org)
| > Alexandre Porcelli (porcelli at devexp.com.br)
| > Sergiy Litsenko (litsenko_sergey at yahoo.com)
| >
| >
| > Note that unlike the @author tags, this file will list all contributors,
| > and the names of new contributors will be appended to the list by the
| > project lead.  (No names will be removed from this file.)
| >
| > I would prefer to hear from every contributor, so please respond with +1 if
| > you agree with this proposal, 0 if you don't care, or -1 if you want to keep
| > the @author tags.  If you vehemently want to keep the @author tags and names
| > in the source file, please say so.
| >
| > Best regards,
| >
| > Randall
| >
| > On Nov 18, 2008, at 3:33 PM, Randall Hauch wrote:
| >
| >
| > On Nov 18, 2008, at 2:52 PM, Stefano Maestri wrote:
| >
| >
| > Randall Hauch wrote on 17/11/08 22:17:
| >
| > 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.
| >
| > May I ask where?
| >
| >
| > I knew someone was going to ask. :-)  I had to go back and look, but here
| > are a few:
| >
| > http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4216011961522818645&ei=8o0YSbiFOY6qrgLC2PnLDQ&q=poisonous+people
| > http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/Coding+Conventions
| > http://subversion.tigris.org/hacking.html#other-conventions
| > http://blogs.sun.com/ahe/entry/author_tags
| >
| >
| >
| > tags:
| >
| >
| >  1. 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.
| >
| >
| > +1...but is really @author tag intimating someone, or giving ownership
| >
| > to some other? Quiet frankly not for me.
| >
| >
| > I hope it doesn't discourage people from contributing and diving in
| > wherever they want.  BTW, it's quite possible that no matter what our
| > policy, some people may not like it.  For example, if we were to adopt a
| > policy of NOT including @author tags, some people may refuse to join the
| > community because they see the @author tag as proof they worked on it.  It
| > takes all kinds of people. :-)
| >
| >
| > Anyway I agree on the _discurage_ownership and _encourage_everyone to
| >
| > work in any area, so if it can help, remove @author tag.
| >
| >
| >  1. @author tags can be inaccurate.  SVN has the true history of who
| >
| >     contributed exactly what code.
| >
| >
| > +1
| >
| >
| > IMO, this is perhaps the biggest justifiable reason.  Its rubbish if its
| > not up-to-date, so it seems far better to not have @author tags.
| >
| >
| >
| > 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
| >
| >
| > abosolutely better to use fisheye...if fine people of JBoss.org would
| >
| > also mind to upgrade it to a more recent version it would be even
| >
| > better. Also Jira integration may help a lot.
| >
| >
| > I would just add that if we decide to remove the tag we have to change
| >
| > also the license information at the beginnig of any file which say:
| >
| > /* 2
| >
| > <
| > http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/graph/GraphI18n.java?r=598#l2
| > >
| >
| > * JBoss, Home of Professional Open Source. 3
| >
| > <
| > http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/graph/GraphI18n.java?r=598#l3
| > >
| >
| > * Copyright 2008, Red Hat Middleware LLC, and individual contributors 4
| >
| > <
| > http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/graph/GraphI18n.java?r=598#l4
| > >
| >
| > * as indicated by the @author tags. See the copyright.txt file in the 5
| >
| > <
| > http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jboss/dna/graph/GraphI18n.java?r=598#l5
| > >
| >
| > * distribution for a full listing of individual contributors.
| >
| >
| >
| > Yes, we'd have to update the headers.
| >
| > Best regards,
| >
| > Randall
| >
| >
| >
| > _______________________________________________
| > dna-dev mailing list
| > dna-dev at lists.jboss.org
| > https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/dna-dev
| >
| >
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