Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 21:07:22 -0700 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.osd.bsdi.com> To: "Charles M. Hannum" <root@ihack.net> Cc: freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Competition Message-ID: <3305.966917242@localhost> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 21 Aug 2000 22:33:24 EDT." <200008220233.e7M2XOf02013@lop-nor.ihack.net>
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> It's possible that's true -- though frankly it isn't worth my time to > look. However, you *did*, e.g., stand next to me in Monterey and > utter such things as `that's why we [FreeBSD] did an Alpha port' ... And you have to take such remarks in context, Charles. When I say something like this, it's generally in explanation as to why a FreeBSD/alpha port even exists, regardless of who might have written what bits. It would be more accurate but far less wieldy for me to say "that's why we [FreeBSD] did an Alpha port, which by the way was largely done by various members of the NetBSD project in association with Carnegie-Mellon University and subsequently integrated by Andrew Gallatin, Doug Rabson, John Birrell and others." If I absolutely, positively wanted to avoid offending anyone (and I'd probably still leave somebody off and end up doing so anyway), I could be this painfully politically correct but it wouldn't make my speeches any shorter. > That's marginally true, but the fact is that many people expect -- > and, indeed, using a `Berkeley-style' license *require* -- a certain > level of recognition for their work. Which is what the copyright lines are for since nothing else adequately documents the long historical trail of who wrote what. Authors are expected to claim their due recognition through the process of putting "Copyright (c) <year> Joe Hacker" somewhere in the comments at the top of of their source files and most in search of such recognition do so. Just doing a ``more /sys/alpha/alpha/*.c'' will show any newcomer to the BSD world just who authored some of the more key elements of FreeBSD/alpha. Speaking from historical experience, I don't think anyone in the *BSD community goes significantly out of their way to remember or acknowledge all the little details of who did what and that's simply because there are too frickin' many people and groups to remember and acknowledge, not out of spite. The ports collection is a fine example of this since I doubt that anyone over in NetBSD remembers just who came up with it back in August of 1994, at least I've never heard the origins of the "NetBSD packages collection" acknowledged in any NetBSD-related talks I've attended, but that doesn't get my undies in a bunch. Anyone genuinely interested in the origins of things like the ports collection can read the top of bsd.port.mk, see the copyright, and browse the CVS logs (at least in FreeBSD) for the history of its evolution. That's good enough for this author! - Jordan To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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