[IRCServices Coding] contributing to ircservices : legal and coding standards problems

[nick martini]

nice attitude.
ah well, at least you're not lara... she was much worse on her mailing
list.

lucas, if you code botserv, i know of about a million people who would
be interested in it.

On Fri, Dec 13, 2002 at 07:17:25PM +0900, Andrew Church wrote:
|> From: achurch at achurch.org (Andrew Church)
|> To: ircservices-coding at ircservices.za.net
|> Subject: Re: [IRCServices Coding] contributing to ircservices : legal and coding standards problems
|> X-Mailer: MMail v5.06
|> Message-ID: <3df9ba01.30410 at achurch.org>
|> Reply-To: ircservices-coding at ircservices.za.net
|> Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 19:17:25 JST
|> 
|>      Short answer: don't send me code (and see FAQ Z.8).
|> 
|>      Long answer:
|> 
|> >1/ While developping a complex module such as botserv, I'll probably
|> >come accross things like missing callbacks, etc. I haven't started
|> >coding, but it seems there's no callback for messages sent to a channel.
|> >(I'm not sure of the m_privmsg callback not ignoring channel privmsgs).
|> >So I'll probably have to modify things in ircservices. Since my
|> >module(s) would be distributed under the GPL (I'm not even part of the
|> >team of any network), I have 3 solutions :
|> 
|>      Alternatively, you could suggest to me "I need a callback to do X",
|> and I'd probably add it, or at least tell you an alternative way to do it.
|> 
|> >"Furthermore, any submissions of modules, code, documentation, or any
|> [...]
|> >your situation.)"
|> >a. this is against french law, and probably laws from many other
|> >countries : some rights of the author can't be given to someone else.
|> 
|>      I can't say anything about other countries' laws.  If this ever
|> becomes a factual problem I'll deal with it at that time.
|> 
|> >b. this is against the free software idea.
|> 
|>      There is no such thing as "the free software idea".  There are a whole
|> bunch of "free software ideas"; I don't necessarily agree with all of them.
|> I go into some discussion of this in question Z.8 in the FAQ.
|> 
|> >c. if I code sthing, then contribute it to ircservices, I would no
|> >longer be the author of this, so I couldn't, for example, include it in
|> >a commercial product I distribute.
|> 
|>      This is true.
|> 
|> >I don't understand why this clause is needed. There's no risk with
|> >including GPLed code or FDLed documentation in a project, since neither
|> >the GPL nor the FDL can be revoked. Could you please explain ?
|> 
|>      That clause was originally used for translations, which I feel I have
|> every right to claim ownership for (and at least US and Japanese copyright
|> law guarantee this, IIRC).  I extended it to cover all code just to make my
|> life simpler, so that I don't have to worry about who owns what code and
|> contributed it under what conditions, and also to cover my back in case
|> some crackpot tries to claim rights to my code, as happened once before.
|> (Look at docs/copyright.html, among other places, and note that I
|> specifically state "version 2" of the GPL, not the "version 2 or any later
|> version" that most people use--I might not be able to include such code in
|> Services due to the difference in licensing terms.)
|> 
|>      In reality, it makes very little difference, as I almost never include
|> code people send me "as-is"--I rewrite it myself.  The reasoning for this
|> is explained more fully in question Z.8 in the FAQ.
|> 
|> >2/ Coding standards (section 6.4)
|> >I understand your identifier naming conventions. But there's no need for
|> >Formatting conventions. What about using GNU indent, which is highly
|> >configurable, and provide a .indent.pro file for ircservices, so that
|> >everyone can submit code that matches your very own formatting
|> >conventions ?
|> 
|>      I can do indenting fine on my own and have no need or desire to use a
|> tool to do it.  If you can't format your code like mine (and you should
|> always match the existing style when you modify a program), then I don't
|> want to see your code.
|> 
|>   --Andrew Church
|>     achurch at achurch.org
|>     http://achurch.org/
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|> 

-- 
ill try to be less cynical when you try to be less stupid.