Project naming

Juan Manuel Palacios jmpp at macports.org
Sat Oct 27 12:22:01 PDT 2007


	Easy, easy! This is not another project rename endeavor nor another  
host migration, relax and breathe easy now! ;-)

	It is, however, a call to standardize the name string we use to  
identify this project we work on. We are "MacPorts", sure... but,  
actually, that's really the name of the software we make and love ;-)  
There are any number of iterations of that string (plain & flat  
"MacPorts", "The MacPorts Team", "The MacPorts Organization", "The  
MacPorts Group", who-knows-what-else) strewn out all over our  
sources, documentation and web pages whenever it comes to identifying  
"us", the group that works on putting together that "MacPorts"  
software. Even though this mess is not a project life threatening  
issue, it certainly does not help to consolidate an identity... or at  
least that of a non-schizophrenic software project!

	So on behalf of exactly that, our project identity, I would like to  
ask all of us to standardize on a single name string whenever there's  
a need to identify our group : "The MacPorts Project". Not too formal  
-- we're not a legal entity--,  not too informal -- we are definitely  
serious about our work!

	As a Portmgr petition, I would like to ask you all to start using  
this name when crediting our organization in whatever work you do for  
the project.

	Also, as a side note, a couple of guidelines for work crediting and  
copyright attribution:

1) If you contribute a new software module and/or a new source file  
in an existing module of our project, and you can attribute all that  
work to yourself, then please by all means credit yourself in the file 
(s) headers with a copyright notice (or notices in case more than one  
individual participated). Among other things, this helps us to  
quickly find all those that were involved in creating whatever source  
file. One exception to this guideline should probably be our  
Portfiles, since those are partly meant for human eyes consumption  
and we should keep the boilerplate (comment cruft) to a minimum.

2) If you instead contribute a sizable patch to an existing source  
file (either a bug fix or feature enhancement), then also feel free  
to attribute yourself a copyright notice on the file header. An  
exception for this second guideline should be when doing small things  
like simple code refactoring, whitespace cleanups, one/two-liner bug  
fixes, etc... Crediting all of these is in my opinion unnecessary and  
would create unmanageable file headers, among other things.

3) If this work in which you credit yourself is uploaded to the  
"base" component of our repository, then you are clearly  
*contributing* it to the project. Therefore, a credit line for the  
project itself, with our standardized name of course, is desirable.

	If you are more versed on the legal aspects of licensing and the  
sort than us, and you find anything that may feel uncomfortable in  
our petitions, then by all means feel free to raise your concerns.  
But in any case lets please try to stick to the spirit outlined here,  
thank you!

	Regards to all and thank you for your help and support!


-jmpp, on behalf of Portmgr



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