> > Exactly. And even for the case where the change/commit came
> from somebody
> > else, that will (should) be noted in the log message. You
> can always find
> > out who wrote any particular change.
>
> CVS change/commit logs don't go into the javadoc, which is
> often the major
> way in which a user looks at the code.
You can add CVS commit comments in the code (in a comment, or even in the
javadocs, although it's rather unusual) by using the tag $Log$, which will
be completed by CVS when a file is commited.
>
> > > Also, I think author tags are a way that code gets 'assigned' to
> > > someone, and I would like to avoid the problem of code
> ownership that I
> > > have seen in other open source project I have worked on.
> Although, I
> > > think the Apache system is designed to reduce the impact of such
> > > problems, I think not having author tags will help.
>
> Code ownership is bad. But only in terms of the old corporate
> concept that
> only Mr X can change a piece of code. Code responsibility is important
> however. I've found that when you throw away code ownership,
> you often end
> up with no one caring.
>
> Code responsibility means that even though anyone may leap in
> and hack on
> a piece, the long term future of a piece of code is the
> responsibility of
> known people. Effectively code-ownership [bad] is implementation while
> code responsibility [good] is design. Author tags signify code
> responsibility.
eXtrem programming (is it applicable to an open-source project?) mentions
that code responsibility should shared between all developpers. In other
words, anyone can modify a class, if he/she has good reasons to do so. With
a responsible clearly assigned, what would happen if he/she leaves the team?
Cheers,
Tom
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