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

[David Cantrell]

On Wed, 2007-02-21 at 16:17 +0100, Jim Meyering wrote:
> David Cantrell <dcantrell at redhat.com> wrote:
> > 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.
> 
> Hi David,
> 
> As Andrew mentioned, having one's name listed where it can be
> more easily seen, is a motivating factor for some.  Think of it
> as a small price to pay as thanks for their contribution.

I definitely agree that it is motivating for a lot of people.  But I
don't want to overload the --version screen with lots of text that
*most* end users won't care about.  Admins want a simple output to check
the version, for example.

> For each of the 90+ programs in coreutils, I've listed only the names of
> people who have contributed significantly to an application.  That
> means I list the original author(s), and anyone who contributes a big
> feature or does a significant rewrite.  That has the disadvantage of
> not giving credit to the people who work on individual library modules
> used by the application.
> Here, where the libraries and the application are pretty tightly
> coupled, it's a little different: the list of names is longer.
> 
> Anyhow, I like the idea of listing the names, but don't want to rock
> the boat, so perhaps this (what's in my pending patch) is good enough:
> 
>   $ ./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>.

I think this is a perfect solution and far more appropriate.  Granted,
it requires that we keep the URL up to date in the source, but we'd have
to do that anyway if we had the author list there.

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