[dna-dev] @author tags in our codebase

Wed Jan 14 02:43:23 EST 2009

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
>
>
>
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