[parted-devel] including author names in --version output

[David Cantrell]

On Wed, 2007-02-21 at 15:19 +0100, Jim Meyering wrote:
> Otavio Salvador <otavio at debian.org> wrote:
> > Andrew Clausen <clausen at econ.upenn.edu> writes:
> >
> >> On Mon, Feb 19, 2007 at 06:16:30PM +0100, Jim Meyering wrote:
> >>> Yep, I saw that, but figured 3-5 names would be enough.
> >>> The problem is where to draw the line.
> >>>
> >>> How about this instead:
> >>>
> >>>   $ parted/parted --version
> >>>   parted (GNU parted) 1.9.9
> >>>   Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> >>>   This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
> >>>   the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
> >>>   There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
> >>>
> >>>   Written by <http://parted.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/browser/AUTHORS>.
> >>
> >> That looks fine.
> >>
> >> Not that this decision has anything to do with me...  if you want to
> >> maximize incentives for people to contribute, then you should fill the
> >> screen up with every contributor's name!
> >
> > Yes, I agree. I think this could be done using a variable on config.h
> > and parsing the AUTHORS file.
> 
> I've looked at that, and have encountered some problems.
> First, when there are 10 or more authors, gnulib's version-etc.c
> abbreviates the list, printing only the first nine:
> 
>   ...
>   Written by %s, %s, %s,\n%s, %s, %s, %s,\n%s, %s, and others.\n"),
> 
> while there are 44 names listed in AUTHORS.
> ----------------------------
> But that's not a big deal.
> I'll either fix the version_etc function to do what I want to use
> some other mechanism.
> 
> Another complication:
> the #define AUTHORS _("name1"), _("name2"), ...
> strings must be ASCII.
> Of course, for names where it makes a difference (there are several),
> a comment can instruct translators how to write the name properly.
> 
> Here's an example from coreutils' ptx.c:
> 
>   /* Note to translator: Please translate "F. Pinard" to "François
>      Pinard" if "ç" (c-with-cedilla) is available in the
>      translation's character set and encoding.  */
>   #define AUTHORS _("F. Pinard")
> 
> ----------------------------
> That's not a problem either, but now I'm wondering if we really
> want all 44 names in --version output.  Typically, the names listed
> there are those associated with "code" changes, not with translations.
> Many of the names in AUTHORS file are solely for translations.
> Maybe there should be a separate way to thank translators?
> 
> What do you think?

I have no problems listing the names in the AUTHORS file or on the web
site, but I don't see the point in having this information in the
--version output.  Too many people have contributed.  It's not simply a
single author.  We should collectively refer to the AUTHOR pool as the
GNU project since we are all working for that project.  The AUTHORS file
exists to list everyone by name, if they want to.  But that information
is not appropriate for the --version output.

-- 
David Cantrell <dcantrell at redhat.com>
Red Hat / Westford, MA
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