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

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?

> > 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.

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

> > 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/jb... > 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/jbo... > * JBoss, Home of Professional Open Source. 3 <http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jbo... > * Copyright 2008, Red Hat Middleware LLC, and individual contributors 4 <http://fisheye.jboss.org/browse/DNA/trunk/dna-graph/src/main/java/org/jbo... > * 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/jbo... > * distribution for a full listing of individual contributors.