DRAFT document on coding conventions in kde libraries

Nicolas Goutte nicolasg at snafu.de
Mon Mar 6 11:41:06 GMT 2006


On Sunday 05 March 2006 22:53, Friedrich W. H. Kossebau wrote:
> Am Sonntag, 5. März 2006 18:38, schrieb Olivier Goffart:
(...)
> > > Nice document, please fix the typos and grammar. If you'd like, I can
> > > do that before we put it on developer.kde.org
> >
> > I'd be happy if you can do that. As you may know, English is not my
> > native language :-)
> >
> > Allen Winter wrote :
> > > Also don't forget the license headers ^and copyrights^ in each files.
> >
> > I've added that.
>

> Are there some docs _how_ to document license and copyrights in each files?

They are at the risk of the copyright holder, so I do not think that we can 
impose something but indeed perhaps recommend something.

>
> Are pointers sufficient like "See File xy for authors, copyright and
> licence" or should there be a complete documentation of all authors
> and the
> licence (although they might be fetchable from the repository system)? 

Basic copyright and license information *must* be in the same file or some 
"attacker" could (pseudo-)naively tell: "I did not know".

> Does
> "copyright © 1996-2004 the KDE developers." really do it?

"Anonymous copyrights" are not allowed anymore for new source files in KDE 
(since the start of 2004 I think). You have to have named coyprights with the 
name of each copyright holder.

("Anonymous copyrights" are only allowed in place where there is not enough 
place like the footer of the Web pages, the KAboutData class and similar 
issues.)

> And what sense
> make the notion of the year span at all, when to update?

Year spans (e.g. 1996-2004) are problematic, as far as I have understood, and 
listing each year has to be prefered.

> Currently there are all kind of habits spread... surely due to random
> copy&paste adaption?
>

> (BTW: What rights systems does this all fit at all, execpt the USA one?)

The internation conventions on copyrights, the local copyright laws/systems... 
i.e. the same mess as with trademarks.

>
> Regards
> Friedrich

Have a nice day!





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