GNU bug report logs - #44702
[PATCH] ; * lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el: Fix Author line.

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: [PATCH] ; * lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el: Fix Author line.
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2020 04:30:45 -0800

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Severity: wishlist

I think the "Author" header line in package.el does not accurately
reflect the contributions to that file.  In particular, I think Tom
Tromey should be listed as the sole author of package.el, in line with
our practices and to recognize his contribution.

Please see the attached patch and compare it the output of the following
command:

$ git shortlog -sn -- lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el | cat -n

     1	   132	Artur Malabarba
     2	    54	Glenn Morris
     3	    52	Stefan Monnier
     4	    46	Chong Yidong
     5	    40	Paul Eggert
     6	    23	Stefan Kangas
     7	    16	Dmitry Gutov
     8	    11	Lars Ingebrigtsen
     9	     8	Daiki Ueno
    10	     8	Juanma Barranquero
    11	     7	Eli Zaretskii
    12	     7	Sam Steingold
    13	     5	Noam Postavsky
    14	     5	Ted Zlatanov
    15	     4	John Wiegley
    16	     4	Pieter van Oostrum
    17	     3	Basil L. Contovounesios
    18	     3	Bastien Guerry
    19	     3	Nicolas Richard
    20	     3	Phil Hagelberg
    21	     3	Thien-Thi Nguyen
    22	     3	Thierry Volpiatto
    23	     3	Thomas Fitzsimmons
    24	     2	Chunyang Xu
    25	     2	Daniel Hackney

Any objections?

[0001-lisp-emacs-lisp-package.el-Fix-Author-line.patch (text/x-diff, attachment)]

Message #8 received at 44702 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
To: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
Cc: 44702 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, tom <at> tromey.com
Subject: Re: bug#44702: [PATCH] ;
 * lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el: Fix Author line.
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2020 11:29:56 -0500

I think for older changes you can't rely on analysis of git output.
Although the change to the author header in a49ff80c24 makes no sense in
isolation, it was probably making up for past changes such as

https://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-diffs/2013-06/msg00134.html
https://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-diffs/2013-06/msg00310.html

(I guess ChangeLog attributions weren't accurately mapped to git authors
when the repository was converted.)

See in particular
https://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-devel/2013-06/msg01101.html

Message #11 received at 44702 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
To: Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 44702 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, tom <at> tromey.com
Subject: Re: bug#44702: [PATCH] ;
 * lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el: Fix Author line.
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2020 08:55:03 -0800

tags 44702 + notabug wontfix
close 44702
thanks

Glenn Morris <rgm <at> gnu.org> writes:

> I think for older changes you can't rely on analysis of git output.
> Although the change to the author header in a49ff80c24 makes no sense in
> isolation, it was probably making up for past changes such as
>
> https://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-diffs/2013-06/msg00134.html
> https://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-diffs/2013-06/msg00310.html
>
> (I guess ChangeLog attributions weren't accurately mapped to git authors
> when the repository was converted.)
>
> See in particular
> https://lists.gnu.org/r/emacs-devel/2013-06/msg01101.html

OK, I was not aware of that.

Sorry about the noise, closing.

Message #14 received at 44702 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
Cc: 44702 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, tom <at> tromey.com
Subject: Re: bug#44702: [PATCH] ;
 * lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el: Fix Author line.
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2020 18:55:26 +0200

> From: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
> Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2020 04:30:45 -0800
> Cc: tom <at> tromey.com
> 
> I think the "Author" header line in package.el does not accurately
> reflect the contributions to that file.  In particular, I think Tom
> Tromey should be listed as the sole author of package.el, in line with
> our practices and to recognize his contribution.
> 
> Please see the attached patch and compare it the output of the following
> command:
> 
> $ git shortlog -sn -- lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el | cat -n
> 
>      1	   132	Artur Malabarba
>      2	    54	Glenn Morris
>      3	    52	Stefan Monnier
>      4	    46	Chong Yidong
>      5	    40	Paul Eggert
>      6	    23	Stefan Kangas
>      7	    16	Dmitry Gutov
>      8	    11	Lars Ingebrigtsen
>      9	     8	Daiki Ueno
>     10	     8	Juanma Barranquero
>     11	     7	Eli Zaretskii
>     12	     7	Sam Steingold
>     13	     5	Noam Postavsky
>     14	     5	Ted Zlatanov
>     15	     4	John Wiegley
>     16	     4	Pieter van Oostrum
>     17	     3	Basil L. Contovounesios
>     18	     3	Bastien Guerry
>     19	     3	Nicolas Richard
>     20	     3	Phil Hagelberg
>     21	     3	Thien-Thi Nguyen
>     22	     3	Thierry Volpiatto
>     23	     3	Thomas Fitzsimmons
>     24	     2	Chunyang Xu
>     25	     2	Daniel Hackney
> 
> Any objections?

The number of commits doesn't necessarily tell how significant was the
contribution; you need to count the number of added/changed lines
instead.  As an extreme example, the original author who write a
package from scratch and installed it in a single commit will be at
the tail of your list, but that doesn't express correctly the
contribution of that person.

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