[as2api-dev] Re: [osflash] [ANN] as2api 0.4 released

[David Holroyd]

On Tue, Feb 07, 2006 at 08:38:01AM -0500, Scott Hyndman wrote:
> On a side note, I'm hoping to see the @author tag implemented soon.

Care to elaborate?

I ask because I try to discourage the use of @author in (Java) code we
produce at work, reasons being:

 - Although it initially indicates the best person to question about a
   particular bit of code, other people will change the file later, and
   likely will fail to update the tag

 - Staff turnover will make the information irrelevant

 - The authorship of each file is accurately and automatically recorded
   by the version control system, anyway

 - It can discourage people from taking ownership of the code, when
   needed, because it 'belongs' to someone else


On the plus side though, people *should* be proud of the code they
write and want to put their name to it.  I'd suggest that such
(commendable [1]) hubris should be displayed at a higher level though,
e.g. in the package or app/library as a whole.


So,

Would some kind of global option for specifying authorship suit your
needs?  This could additionally be used to define Dublin Core 'creator'
metadata in the generated HTML, which would be a nice bonus.


your thoughts are appreciated!
dave


[1] http://www.hhhh.org/wiml/virtues.html

-- 
http://david.holroyd.me.uk/