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From: "Sander Striker" <striker@apache.org>
To: <general@incubator.apache.org>
Subject: RE: Code ownership (was Re: whoweare.html)
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 12:43:53 +0100
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> From: David Shane Holden [mailto:dpejesh@yahoo.com]
> Sent: 06 November 2002 04:33

> B. W. Fitzpatrick wrote:
>> Are you serious? Quite frankly, I find that behavior reprehensible--It
>> reeks of strange fraternity initiation rites.
>> 
>> If I write, test, and commit a piece of good solid code and someone
>> else goes pissing in it just to leave their scent and to show me that
>> I don't 'own' the code, I am *not* going to be amused by it.
>> Ownership of code shouldn't be taught by this kind of negative
>> reinforcement, and I would suggest that the quality of the code
>> suffers as a result.
> 
> So you're saying it's ok for you to brag to everybody that you wrote the 
> 'good' code, that sounds pretty lame.  How would you show someone that 
> the code they _donated_ isn't theirs, its the communities?

By simply telling them at the gate.  All code donations are ASF owned
on commit.

"just to leave their scent and to show me that I don't 'own' the code"

In other words, no functional change, or anything constructive.

And bragging about who wrote code is something personal.  Some people
do it, some people don't.  Some will fall down doing so, others won't.

Personally I've never seem people brag about code in the projects I'm
on.

> >>One thing that *could* be a problem is that @author tags can give the 
> >>impression that a cretain piece of code is "maintained" by the authors, 
> >>or that they are responsible for it, and this can reduce peer review.
> > 
> > 
>> Yes.  Also, I think that placing author credit in every file
>> encourages territoriality and individualism while discouraging people
>> from thinking and acting as a team.
> 
> But showing people that the 'good' code you wrote isnt?
> 
> Sounds somewhat hypocritical...

Seriously, we have a SCM to find out who wrote what.  @author tags are
misleading to say the least.  The entire concept just asks for people
that are going to see in how many places they can get their name.
Committers fixing things are likely to forget to keep the authors tags
up to date anyway.

Sander