Woops, double-negation. I think I meant "We could just not encourage
people to add their names".
________________________________________
From: tracecompass-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[tracecompass-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] on behalf of Marc-André
Laperle [marc-andre.laperle@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, 06 August 2015 3:38 PM
To: tracecompass developer discussions
Subject: Re: [tracecompass-dev] Removing contributor list from
copyright header
If we remove them as we go, it will make patches bigger for not much
reason (like unrelated formatting changes). I think I'd rather not
touch them at all or remove them all at the same time. We could just
not encourage people to not add their names. I guess this is more or
less the approach of the Platform/CDT.
Marc-Andre
________________________________________
From: tracecompass-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[tracecompass-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] on behalf of Alexandre
Montplaisir [alexmonthy@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, 06 August 2015 3:16 PM
To: Martin.Oberhuber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: tracecompass developer discussions
Subject: Re: [tracecompass-dev] Removing contributor list from
copyright header
Hi Martin,
Thanks for providing this insight!
First, just so it's clear to everyone, I am *not* suggesting that we
remove the copyright headers entirely! These are very important to have!
I am only talking about the contributor list, which is the
"Contributors:" line and the ones below listing a kind of changelog of
every file.
Indeed, what I am proposing for Trace Compass here is slightly different
than what CDT and Platform are suggesting. CDT and Platform are making
those lists optional. I personally feel that the contributor lists are
superfluous, and that our project could (if the other committers agree
of course) enforce to not use them at all. It would remain compatible
with Eclipse's template.
On 2015-08-06 02:39 PM, Oberhuber, Martin wrote:
[...]
1. for some contributors, having their name listed in the Copyright
Header is a small signal of appreciation.
I can totally understand this. However, the copyright header is supposed
to list copyright holders, it is only there for legal reasons. The git
logs (author and sign-off lines) are arguably a better place to put
contributor appreciation.
2. the copyright headers never claimed to be complete or accurate,
since it always said "... and others" in the first line.
I find this problematic. Copyright headers are supposed to be complete
and accurate. OSS licenses depend on copyright laws to be enforceable,
and while IANAL, I don't think "and others" holds a meaning as strong as
explicitly listing all copyright holders. As I mentioned previously in
[1], I think this is a flaw in the current copyright header template.
Thus there is no urgency in pruning or cleaning them.
Of course, there is no rush to remove the existing contributor lists.
Cheers,
Alexandre
[1] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=435933#c8